Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato used his annual appearance before County Council yesterday for his State of the County address to push back an attempt to repeal the new 10 percent drink and $2-a-day car rental taxes.

A short time later, Council members voted 10-4 with one abstention to reject an ordinance repealing both the taxes, which were approved as sources for a dedicated funding stream for the county's $30 million subsidy of the Port Authority in the 2008 budget.

"There is no way that the votes are there to reopen this budget or repeal these taxes. I would ask my Republican colleagues to pull back their proposal because this battle [over the drink tax] is over," Councilman Jim Ellenbogen, D-Banksville, told his colleagues.

In a fiery meeting that lasted more than three hours and featured a long debate between Mr. Onorato and council's Republican caucus, members discussed their communications with the chief executive, how they will tackle the county's fiscal problems in the future, and whether they can use future gambling revenue instead of the two levies they approved Dec. 4.

Mr. Onorato, who in the last two days battled three Republican council members -- Vince Gastgeb of Bethel Park, Jan Rea of McCandless, and Matt Drozd of Ross -- over how to spend $19.9 million from the state, said he regretted not notifying council as soon as he confirmed the money was in county coffers.

But he assured council that even if he had notified members earlier or received the first installment of the gambling revenues earlier, "I would still have submitted to you the same budget."

"The mistake I made, I should have informed all of you when I was informing the public," Mr. Onorato said. But he stressed the fact that the county would still have needed both taxes because the $19.9 million was applied to debt service in the county's 2007 budget.

Before that exchange, Mr. Onorato, in his State of the County address, told council that "over the past four years, we have seen unprecedented economic growth and investment in Allegheny County."

Today, he said, "there is approximately $4 billion in housing, commercial and recreational developments taking place in and around the core of our region, including Three PNC Plaza, Piatt Place, the Majestic Star casino and a new multipurpose arena."

And Mr. Onorato did not cede his Republican opponents any ground last night over how the county should spend gambling revenues.

"This money could not have been used for the Port Authority because it is state money. State money cannot be given to another agency to leverage another state match," he said.

Council's Republican members have argued that the controversial drink tax could have been replaced with future funds from the gaming industry.

And in a meeting which featured numerous speakers from county human services departments and other organizations, all of whom opposed repealing both the drink and car rental taxes, it was Mr. Ellenbogen who called on both sides to put aside the political fights of the last few days.

"Anybody that knows me knows that I am an independent person. But I would like to say that we're embattled right now. And being an embattled council is not a good thing for us," he said.

And after a long night of heated arguments about the taxes, his colleagues echoes his sentimentsand they promised restaurateurs and bar owners that they will seek other options that could alleviate the impact of the drink tax.