HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell will begin a four-day, cross-state bus tour today to lobby residents for support of addition money for roads, bridges and public transportation.

The tour will start in eastern counties and end Friday with stops in Pittsburgh and other western locations. At each stop he'll make a pitch for state legislators to approve at least $472 million in additional transportation funds.

Some options include a new tax on oil companies' gross profits; higher state gasoline taxes; higher fees for renewal of driver's licenses and vehicle registrations; or "public private partnerships," where a private company would operate and maintain a newly tolled road and keep the toll revenue.

One critic, Gregory Wrightstone of Wexford, a member of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Responsible Government, called the governor's bus ride the "Tax Me More Bus Tour," and called for protesters to show up at each stop.

However, a group called 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania is urging its members to support the additional transportation spending.

Group President Jack Machek said state residents currently "have a unique opportunity to demand that our state government develop a comprehensive funding solution to the $3.5 billion funding gap we face each year" to improve roads, bridges and transit.

A recent study estimated that as much as $3.5 billion a year is needed to completely repair roads and bridges, far more than the $472 million that's needed to make up for the loss of funds from I-80 tolls.

Mr. Rendell will be in Lehigh, Delaware and Bucks counties Tuesday and in northeastern and northcentral Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

On Thursday he has stops scheduled in Blair County at 10 a.m., Cambria County at 12:15 p.m., Indiana County at 2:15 p.m. and at a bridge in Hempfield, Westmoreland County, at 4:15 p.m. The times at some stops was tentative, according to a schedule released Monday.

He starts Friday at 10 a.m. in Downtown Pittsburgh, at the PNC Firstside Operations Center, Grant Street and First Avenue. Then he goes to the Kopple Bridge in Beaver County at noon; to Hermitage, Mercer County, at 2 p.m.; and then to a Route 8 resurfacing project in Butler County.

Mr. Rendell wants legislators to return to the Capitol Aug. 23 to decide which revenue-raising options will be chosen to replace the $472 million a year the state won't get due to the federal government's refusal to place tolls on Interstate 80. He said the problems with decaying highways, structurally deficient bridges and deficit-ridden transit agencies won't be solved without additional funds.

Mr. Wrightstone said a gross profits tax on oil companies could add as much as a dime a gallon to gasoline costs. "If there ever was a tailor-made event for grass roots groups to protest, it is at these bus stops," he said.

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