Money alone won't solve the financial problems facing the Port Authority and dozens of other transit systems across the state.

John Beale, Post-Gazette

Karen Warman of Houston, Pa., left, and Linda Warman of Hazelwood, right, participate in a "Bus Riders Rally" sponsored by "Save Our Transit" yesterday. The group rallied outside the Regional Enterprise Tower, Downtown, the locale for yesterday's hearing by the Pennsylvania Funding and Reform Commission, charged by Gov. Ed Rendell to explore what ails the state's road, bridge and transit systems and recommend changes.

"Everybody must share the burden," said Ken Zapinski, an Allegheny Conference on Community Development vice president, suggesting reforms such as reassessing the authority's mission to tightening retirement benefits that enable some union and management employees to retire in their late 40s with 60 percent of their wages and fully paid life insurance.

He was among 20 public speakers and professionals who provided input yesterday to a special, nine-member Pennsylvania Funding and Reform Commission that met in the city, part of a year-long undertaking to determine what ails the state's road, bridge and transit systems and recommend change.

Mr. Zapinski and others pointed out that half of all workers get to work via transit in Downtown and Oakland, which have the second- and third-highest concentrations of jobs in the state, respectively.

Without transit, he said, the heart of the region's economy would not remain an attractive place to invest money and do business.

"Transit is not a pseudo-welfare program, a handout to people too poor to own automobiles," Mr. Zapinski said. "Transit is an economic competitiveness issue."

But some people too poor to own cars or who ride transit as a lifestyle choice rallied before the all-day meeting at the Regional Enterprise Tower. They continued their three-year campaign urging the state Legislature to approve dedicated, reliable, long-term funding to preserve fares and avoid yearly funding problems facing transit.

"This public transit funding crisis has tugged, torn and trampled the emotions of bus and trolley riders throughout the Commonwealth," Save Our Transit declared in a handout. "We want (the special commission) to do what the Legislature has failed to do."

Patrick McMahon, president-business agent of Local 85, Amalgamated Transit Union, asked the board to look at ways other states have generated revenue to support transit and consider raising existing taxes like a $2-a-day tax on rental cars, putting part of the burden on non-residents.

Commission member James Roddey, former Allegheny County chief executive and a past chairman of the Port Authority board, asked him if the union also would support ways to cut costs.

"Absolutely," Mr. McMahon said. "We would work with management."

Pros and cons of contracting transit services occupied much of the commission's time and attention.

It brought in Cal Marsella, general manager of the Denver Regional Transportation District, to explain how about half of the Colorado city's system operates through private contracting. Also testifying was Ron Hartman, vice president of Connex, a private firm that provides transit contracting services in dozens of U.S. cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

Mr. Hartman said his firm works with unions, not against them, to achieve cost savings. Asked what transit agencies Connex doesn't like to manage, he said "systems with unstable funding."

"It sounds like we're back to Square One," Pennsylvania Transportation Secretary Al Biehler responded. He chairs the state commission formed by Gov. Ed Rendell through an executive order.

Locally, Westmoreland County Transit Authority Executive Director Larry Morris outlined how his agency that provides 300,000 rides a year, many of them Pittsburgh commuters, uses all contracted services.

"That is not the solution," he said. "What's still needed is a dedicated, predictable source of funding."

Meanwhile, Mary Jo Morandini, general manager of the Beaver County Transit Authority, explained how the agency successfully changed from contracted services to self-operation, saving money and improving quality and reliability.

"Who's going to take better care of your house?" she asked. "You or a renter?"