The Port Authority says it will be forced to raise fares and cut service unless it gets $20 million a year in savings from the current negotiations with its unions. So why is the transit system adding three new firms to its stable of lobbyists, with a price tag that could add as much as $400,000 a year in spending?

The authority's board is expected to vote Friday to hire Ron Klink & Associates, headed by former U.S. Rep. Ron Klink; Greenlee Partners, with offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg and Washington, D.C.; and Pittsburgh-based Eckert Seamans, also the authority's long-time general counsel.

Their lobbying services would be in addition to the authority's current four-year contract with its longtime lobbyist, Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney, which will be paid $200,000 this year.

The idea is to contract with a group of firms, matching their expertise to the Port Authority's specific needs. And the agency says its needs are great. The six-year federal transportation funding bill, which authorizes billions of dollars for highways and mass transit, comes up next year and the Port Authority needs money for its North Shore Connector, new buses and other projects. The state transit funding plan adopted last year remains in danger of unraveling -- tolling Interstate 80 has not yet received federal approval and a county drink tax is the target of a campaign to have it rescinded.

We agree it is important for the Port Authority to keep its agenda on the desks of state and federal lawmakers, but it must find a way to do so without tripling its budget for lobbyists and adding three more firms, each with the potential for cost overruns.

An agency that has asked its employees and patrons to do more with less must find a way to practice what it preaches.