HARRISBURG -- Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato met yesterday with Pittsburgh-area legislators to try to find a "dedicated" source of $35 million a year to use as county funding for Port Authority mass transit.

Nothing was decided, but various options involving the state sales tax were discussed, said state Reps. Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and Marc Gergely, D-Whitehall.

One idea -- not a politically popular one, they admitted -- would be to change the 1994 Allegheny Regional Asset District law to let the Port Authority receive some RAD funds, which are generated by a 1 percent sales tax in Allegheny County. Currently, the $77 million RAD budget goes for city and county parks, for debt service on bonds that funded Heinz Field and PNC Park, for libraries and dozens of arts and cultural organizations in the county.

The annual battle over who gets RAD funds already is fierce and if the Port Authority were made eligible for the funds, legislators fear that many of the current recipients would be upset.

"I think that RAD idea is a non-starter. I think we'd be asking for trouble," said Mr. Frankel. "Libraries and arts groups need more support. They're not exactly swimming in money."

He noted that Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed raising the sales tax from 6 percent to 7 percent statewide (and from 7 percent to 8 percent in Allegheny and Philadelphia counties). If ²/₁₀ of a percent of the additional sales tax revenues were "dedicated" to the Port Authority, that would provide about $36 million, or about what Mr. Onorato is seeking.

But the deficit-ridden Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Agency in the Philadelphia area would probably want a slice also, and Mr. Rendell already has ideas on how to spend the additional $1.3 billion a year that a higher sales tax would bring. He wants to use some of it for property tax relief.

Another option, said Mr. Gergely, would be to raise the current cap of $75 million on the amount of sales tax revenue that can be allocated for transit systems statewide. The current sales tax generates about $9 billion a year for the state, but the money is always fully allocated in the state budget, so shifting a greater amount to mass transit could mean that current recipients get less.

Other ideas for generating mass transit funds include leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator for a payment of $10 billion or more, which could bring in as much as $965 million a year in investment income. Mr. Rendell has proposed that idea, but he wants to use all the revenue for much-needed repairs to state roads and bridges.

Another option for mass transit funds, oddly, could be putting tolls on Interstate 80, Mr. Gergely said. But those I-80 tolls also were proposed yesterday by the Turnpike Commission as one part of its $965-million-a-year program to fix roads and bridges.

Mr. Frankel said that mass transit funding must be tied together with road and bridge funding in the same bill. Urban legislators want to help mass transit, while rural and small-town lawmakers favor better roads and bridges, so combining the two issues should net the necessary votes in the Legislature, he said.

Funding for both purposes may not be agreed upon until the new state budget is voted on June 30, he added.

Currently, Allegheny County only provides $25 million from property tax revenues for its mass transit needs. Mr. Onorato is seeking a new source for the funds, and an increase to $35 million a year, to better match the amount the state provides.