"It presents an additional challenge between now and the enactment of a new budget," Rendell spokesman Gary Tuma said Wednesday.
The House approved a $29 billion state budget with no new taxes last month and sent the legislation to the Senate with a gap of between $750 million and $1 billion.
That budget did not contain funding for transportation improvements that were to be underwritten by I-80 tolls.
Now lawmakers have a new hurdle, which Republicans and Democrats agree needs to be solved quickly because of the pressing demands of deteriorating roads and struggling mass-transit systems.
The federal government's rejection Tuesday of the I-80 tolls has resurrected the one word no one wanted to hear in an election year: taxes.
In calling for a special legislative session to deal with transportation, Rendell said Tuesday, "People understand that if they want safe bridges, good roads, and potholes eliminated, you cannot wait for the pothole fairy to do it - you've got to pay for it."
He said he was willing to consider any number of revenue ideas that had been floated: an oil-profits tax, bond financing, new or increased motor-vehicle fees, the leasing of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But, he said, the problem needs to be solved before the July 1 budget deadline because of the legislature's nearly two-month summer recess and short fall session.
Tolls on I-80 would have helped fund the $532 million a year the state planned for road and bridge repairs and the $414 million a year for public-transit agencies across the state.
Without the revenue, funding for roads and bridges would be cut by about $300 million a year, delaying repairs on 100 bridges and 300 miles of road.
It would also mean $110 million less for SEPTA and tens of millions less in cutbacks for 70 other transit agencies statewide.
