For months, Gov. Ed Rendell urged the Legislature to approve special funding to help the state's cash strapped transit authorities.

For months, the Legislature urged Rendell to go along with a gas tax increase to help repair the state's crumbling roads and deteriorating bridges.

When it seemed there would be no political solution, or enough money, for either transportation problem, Rendell made a surprise announcement Monday, saying his administration had nearly $1 billion in newfound money.

Out of the red, as in deficit, the state's two strapped urban transit systems are to get a $412 million bailout to carry them to Jan. 1, 2007.

An extra $530 million is to be available for mostly new highway and bridge projects over the same time period.

Here's the nearly billion-dollar question: Where did a state government that has been finagling for months to raise more money for transit, roads and bridges suddenly find $942 million? Was it a Miracle on the Susquehanna? Voodoo economics, Pennsylvania style? Fuzzy math?

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sought out officials from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, transportation industry experts and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the transportation planning agency for the 10-county region, for the answer.

First, the state hit the proverbial lottery at the Federal Highway Administration with a combination of triple 6's. PennDOT is to receive a total of $666 million not previously counted on because, as spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick described it, "We budgeted conservatively."

When PennDOT and its planning partners programmed highway and bridge spending for the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years, they based their calculations in anticipation of getting $1.2 billion a year in federal funds.

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, commonly known as TEA-21, which expired Sept. 30, 2003, had been returning $1.19 to Pennsylvania for every $1 that state residents paid in federal user taxes.

Because Congress has yet to pass a new transportation funding program, allocations have continued at the old rate. As a result, PennDOT recently learned it would be getting an extra $265 million for both the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years.

In addition, when the Federal Highway Administration failed to spend $2.8 billion in its fiscal 2004 year that ended Sept. 30, it released the money to states. Pennsylvania's share is $136 million.

The math: $265 million plus $265 million plus $136 million equals $666 million.

"Congress has never rolled back money to the states, so we're comfortable it will be there" for the next two years, Kirkpatrick said, even if Congress passes a successor to the TEA-21 in the meantime.

Rendell will use $412 million of the $666 million to address budget shortfalls at the Port Authority and Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, capitalizing on a TEA-21 provision permitting states to "flex" federal funds normally used for roads and bridges and use them for "asset maintenance" for transit instead.

Asset maintenance can include everything from buying bus tires and refurbishing trolleys to paying utility bills at division garages. It cannot cover operating expenses such as wages.

But the two urban transit agencies are large enough to be able to juggle other funds on hand to comply with the spending provision in the federal law -- enough to make up projected deficits at the Port Authority of $25 million for the 2004-05 fiscal year that ends June 30; $45 million in the 2005-06 fiscal year; and $64 million in part of the 2006-07 fiscal year.

The news came at the last minute for the Port Authority and SEPTA, which together provide more than 1.2 million bus and rail transit rides on weekdays.

The Port Authority was to have increased the base fare by a quarter, to $2, last Tuesday and cut service by 12 percent effective today, including the elimination of 23 routes. A 50-cent fare increase, a 15 percent service cut and closing of the Harmar Division bus garage were to have occurred in July.

At SEPTA, the base fare was scheduled to be raised to $3, the nation's highest. All of its budget actions and those at the Port Authority have been postponed.

Rendell sent a delegation including PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler to Washington, D.C., in December to talk about the legality of flexing so much traditional highway money to transit and to get an idea of how much extra federal funds would be forthcoming.

PennDOT knew about the money in November and received authorization to spend it Feb. 3. Rendell kept it quiet, however, while he tried to persuade the Legislature to pass a dedicated, long-term funding plan for transit.

Now, about that extra $530 million for highways and bridges:

The balance of federal funds not being flexed to transit amounts to $254 million.

The rest is to come from a 3.8-cents-a-gallon increase in the Oil Company Franchise Tax that automatically kicked in Jan. 1. The increase is expected to be in place through 2006 because of the continued high price of gasoline and diesel fuel, on which the tax is based. PennDOT estimates its share at $138 million a year.

More math: $254 million plus $138 million plus $138 million equals $530 million.

Kirkpatrick said those funds would be distributed throughout the state as extra money to be programmed for road and bridge improvements.

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission's share for the 10-county Pittsburgh region will be about $103 million to restore projects deferred in two earlier rounds of flexing federal funds for transit and to add new road and bridge projects.

Although it appears to be a win-win situation for transit and highway interests, what Rendell did is not what he really wanted to do, Kirkpatrick said.

"He has repeatedly said he did not want to use the flexing procedure because it robs from highway and bridge needs," Kirkpatrick said. "But the Legislature refused to address the long-term solution [for transit] and insisted that the governor use flexing ... to avoid steep fare increases and severe service cuts" that bus/trolley riders faced.