The Port Authority of Allegheny County is asking the federal government for a record $191 million this year.

If the Federal Transit Administration concurs with the authority's grant applications, which it usually does, the state and county would be required to contribute a total of about $48 million as their 20 percent matching share. The use of the combined $239 million would be restricted by law.

Resolutions passed by the authority board last week would spend most of it on a variety of capital programs, such as buying buses and spare parts and paying the rent for administrative offices at the Heinz 57 Building, Downtown.

This year's request is an all-time high not only because the authority is asking for $55 million to continue work on a light-rail extension to the North Shore but mostly because it includes paperwork for $70 million in federal highway funds to be "flexed" to balance the operating budget through Dec. 31. Flexing the funds refers to the discretion that states have to move funds from roads and bridges to public transit.

Programs such as rehabilitating the 20-year-old trolleys are ongoing and span several years, while $55 million to start construction on the T extension depends on whether officials proceed in light of high bids they have received.

"The 'flex' money is an unusual, one-time expenditure," authority spokesman Bob Grove said. "As for the rest, some of it would be spent over several years."

The transit agency routinely applies for federal funding every year and the requests are generally granted without much ado. About as routinely, the state provides its 16.7 percent matching share, and the county provides 3.3 percent.

The authority's operating budget for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which runs through June 30, is $319.8 million and is independent of an $113.4 million capital budget. Although the two generally cannot be intermingled, sometimes staff resources for capital projects are charged to the capital budget, helping to lower pressure on the operating budget.

The authority's government liaison, Jim Barthen, said $70 million to keep trolleys and buses running without a fare increase or drastic service cutbacks is a budget solution delivered by Gov. Ed Rendell and ratified by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the transportation planning agency for the 10-county region.

Separate requests for portions of the $191 million in federal funding include:

$3.2 million to buy about 10 buses with state-of-the-art, low-pollution engines.

$55 million to pay for construction through October if the North Shore Connector is built.

$21 million to continue rehabilitating 40 of the authority's 55 trolleys acquired in the mid-1980s and to start repairing busways, beginning with rebuilding the South Busway between Route 51 and the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel.

$28.8 million, a sort of "block grant" received every year for a variety of capital budget activities, including contracting for ACCESS paratransit services and leasing and maintaining mini-buses.

$83.1 million as highway "flex" funds, including the $70 million that the Rendell administration is using to prop up the operating budget through the end of the year.

In other business, the authority board sold 1.9 acres near the West Deer village of Culmerville to the highest bidder for $26,156. It acquired the land and an old bus garage from Culmerville-Russelton-Cheswick Bus Co. when the authority was founded as a quasi-public agency in the early 1960s.