Pennsylvania taxpayers no doubt are bracing themselves as to how Gov. Ed Rendell and the state General Assembly will respond to recommendations by the Rendell-appointed Transportation Funding and Reform Commission.

If fully implemented, the recommendations would exact a sizable amount of money from motorists and other taxpayers via increases in fees and new and increased taxes.

It's a certainty that not all of the recommendations will be adopted. It's possible that most won't be embraced by lawmakers fearful about the potential fallout emanating from their constituents.

However, it would be naive to believe that all of the recommendations will just "go away" when it is projected that the state needs $1.7 billion in additional revenue for improving the commonwealth's highways and bridges and funding its cash-strapped mass-transit systems.

On the mass-transit front, any help approved should be contingent upon mass transit agencies seriously addressing inefficiencies such as unproductive routes, and increasing fares and taking meaningful steps to reduce labor and management costs.

Many of mass transit's current financial woes are a product of transit agencies' failure to make tough cost-cutting and revenue-enhancing decisions all along.

On the highways and bridges front, where the need is estimated at $900 million for state-owned roads and spans plus an additional $65 million for highways and bridges owned by counties and municipalities, it seems likely that driver's license and vehicle registration fees would be the initial avenue for more money. There will be more resistance to the big increase proposed for the current 19-cents-per-gallon oil franchise tax, if only because of the volatility of gasoline prices.

The study commission recommends that the oil franchise tax be increased by 12.5 cents per gallon, 11.5 cents going for state-owned highways and bridges and the other penny going to counties and municipalities for roads and bridge upgrades.

But the commission also envisions $120 million in savings through means such as streamlined project planning and better maintenance and preservation.

None of those savings need to await legislative action.

Regarding the commission's study and the recommendations put forth, state Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler said the state's highways and mass-transit problems are "a tough, a very tough, issue for all of us."

He said, "I don't know of any other place to start, except (to) start from a point of well-founded pieces of information that would help people understand the circumstances."

However, understanding circumstances doesn't mean a check will be on the way — at least not as much as is being eyed.

Rendell and the new General Assembly need to find a way to make the most positive impact on these issues in ways that will inflict the least amount of financial pain possible on the people they serve.

Rendell can't seek reelection, but most lawmakers will be thinking about their legislative futures as they weigh what has been proposed.

Don't look for an easy time on the state's transportation front.