HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell wants the state Legislature to send him, by mid-June, a bill authorizing "public-private partnerships" to improve transportation, such as his proposal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private company.

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State Reps. Joe Markosek, D-Monroeville, and Rick Geist, R-Altoona, have introduced House Bill 555, a legislative "vehicle" to create public-private partnerships for state roads and bridges. But the exact wording of the bill, and of the kinds of partnerships it would permit, isn't known yet.

Mr. Rendell hopes it will permit him to conduct "an auction," in which private firms would bid on leasing the turnpike. The bill might also permit adding tolls on highways, such as Interstates 80, 81 and 78.

Mr. Rendell said yesterday he hopes to get at least $10 billion from a turnpike lease of at least 30 years. He would invest that one-time payment and expect to get at least $965 million a year in additional funds for improving state roads and bridges.

Mr. Markosek and Mr. Geist agreed with the governor that the state faces a serious problem in coming up with $965 million a year in additional funding for repairing roads and bridges, but they didn't commit themselves to his goal of enacting a bill by mid-June.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission strongly opposes the governor's plan.

In a related matter, Mr. Rendell said he wants the Legislature, by Labor Day, to enact a new system of "dedicated" funding for mass transit systems, such as his plan to impose a 6.17 percent tax on oil company profits.

He thinks he can raise $700 million a year for the Port Authority of Allegheny County and other systems with such a tax. But he hasn't yet found a legal way to prevent oil companies from simply passing on the higher costs to motorists in the form of higher gasoline prices.

Both dates -- mid-June for road/bridge funds and Labor Day for transit funding -- are goals, rather than absolute deadlines for action. But Mr. Rendell stressed that the state's need for more money for roads, bridges and transit is real and can no longer be ignored.

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who came with Mr. Rendell to a news conference here yesterday, agreed with him that federal funding for transportation is limited and isn't the solution to Pennsylvania's problems.

Mr. Rendell said he might "flex" a small amount of federal road funds to transit agencies for a short term -- two or three months -- but not on a permanent basis. He said such flexing will depend on whether the Legislature is close to coming up with new transit funding by Labor Day and just needs a little more time to complete its work.

Two state senators also weighed in on the subject of transit funding yesterday. Sen. Sean Logan, D-Monroeville, pushed his bill to remove the current $75 million limit on a small percentage of state sales tax revenue earmarked for transit.

Mr. Logan also supported another bill, by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, that would not only remove the cap but also increase the percentage of sales tax used for mass transit. Mr. Greenleaf's bill would consolidate a mishmash of transit funding streams into a single, dedicated source.

"Nobody likes the alternatives," Mr. Logan said, such as "a gasoline tax increase or a new tax," referring to the governor's oil tax proposal that many people think would just pass the costs on to consumers.

The Logan bill would remove the current $75 million cap on funding generated by 0.122 percent of the state sales tax. That transit subsidy has been at its maximum amount for more than a decade. Had the cap been lifted, the sales tax would have generated $105 million this year, generating an extra $7 million for the Port Authority.

The Greenleaf bill would raise the percentage for transit to 0.923 percent of the sales tax and generate $750 million in the first year.

Mr. Logan said legislators "need to get serious" about transit funding while the state's 2007-08 fiscal year budget is being debated this spring.

"The Port Authority has stepped up to make dramatic cuts and now it's time for Harrisburg to do its part," he said.

The authority on Friday approved 15 percent in service cuts, including the elimination of 29 bus routes, effective June 17. A further 10 percent round of cuts could take place Sept. 2 as the second step in addressing an $80 million budget deficit if more state help isn't forthcoming.