Gov. Ed Rendell said yesterday that he thinks it's pointless for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission to reapply for federal permission to impose tolls on Interstate 80.

Instead, he'd like Congress to give Pennsylvania and other states the authority to place tolls on all interstate highways.

The Federal Highway Administration last year rejected the turnpike commission's application to toll I-80, a key component of the state's long-range plan to finance highway and bridge reconstruction and public transit.

As a result, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and transit agencies face a $450 million funding cut as soon as July 2010.

Act 44, the state legislation passed in 2007, counted on I-80 tolls and higher turnpike tolls to fund billions of dollars in borrowing by the turnpike commission to pay for roads, bridges and transit.

"We obviously have to amend Act 44," Mr. Rendell said during a visit to Beaver County yesterday. He said he did not expect that to happen during the ongoing state budget deliberations, but possibly in the fall.

Proposals for replacing the I-80 toll revenue include a 10-cent-per-gallon increase in the state gasoline tax, which would raise another $600 million per year, or shifting $500 million from the Motor License Fund that now goes for state police.

Mr. Rendell is co-founder of a bipartisan national coalition, Building America's Future, that is urging major changes to federal transportation policy.

The group has urged Congress, which is considering a new multiyear transportation funding authorization bill, to remove all restrictions on tolling of interstate highways.

"Tolls are user fees and user fees are the fairest way to do this," Mr. Rendell said yesterday.

Regulations currently prohibit tolling of highways built with federal funding. The Federal Highway Administration is overseeing a pilot project that would allow tolls on up to three interstates. Pennsylvania's bid to make I-80 one of the three was rejected last year.

Allen Biehler, who recently became chairman of the turnpike commission and is Mr. Rendell's transportation secretary, told a state House committee on Tuesday that he would meet soon with FHWA officials to discuss resubmitting the I-80 tolling application.

"I told him I thought it was a waste of time and he shouldn't waste his energy on it," Mr. Rendell said yesterday.

State Rep. John Pallone, D-New Kensington, has introduced a resolution in the House urging the turnpike commission to resubmit the application.

Under Act 44, the turnpike agreed to borrow $2.5 billion from mid-2007 to mid-2010 and give the money to PennDOT for road and bridge repairs and public transit systems.

Critics say tolls on I-80 would hurt commerce along the 311-mile east-west highway. Some legislators from other parts of the state, including areas served by the turnpike, say I-80 truckers and out-of-state motorists are getting an unfair "free ride" at Pennsylvanians' expense.