The Port Authority is a beleaguered transit agency that has had to raise fares and cut service to leverage more state funding, and its financial problems are the reason for the widely reviled 10 percent Allegheny County drink tax.

That's why it's inconceivable that its management allowed barrels of cash and coins -- worth hundreds of thousands of dollars -- to sit in storage because (really, this sounds like a joke) there aren't enough people to count it.

The authority blamed high absenteeism among the 15 employees in the currency department and inflexible union work rules. The problem was bad in December and got worse in January after a fare hike resulted in a 16 percent increase in the number of $1 bills collected.

Union leaders offer a different view, saying that if vacancies had been filled, the work would have been done on schedule.

Anyway you look at it, the management of the Port Authority is responsible for making sure the essential work of the agency is completed on time. The people riding its buses and light-rail cars of necessity are being very careful with their own funds, and it's only fair to expect the same of the public agency. Allowing large sums of cash to sit in a vault instead of in a short-term bank account where it could earn interest is unconscionable.

The agency is working on the problem. Spokeswoman Judi McNeil says two budgeted positions are being reclassified so two more people can be brought in to unfold bills, and overtime is being used to get caught up. For the long term, the agency also is looking at the possibility of outsourcing the work to a bank or other entity, which sounds good to us.

The Port Authority also needs to move forward on its plans for a new fare collection system. It is considering use of swipe cards which, while they won't eliminate all cash fares, would cut down on them considerably, reduce fare losses and bring the added benefit of information on how often and when people use buses.

A modern transit agency cannot be dependent on a system in which employees spend their days sitting in a room unfolding dollar bills.