PITTSBURGH -- Owners of some bars and restaurants want to reduce Allegheny County's 10 percent tax on poured alcoholic drinks -- and starting Wednesday, petitions to get the issue on a referendum will be available for customers to sign at dozens of businesses throughout the area.

Chief Executive Dan Onorato, who supported the tax as a way to fund the county's annual $30 million subsidy of Port Authority public transit, has said that the only other option is a higher property tax.

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"I'm going to be very honest," Onorato said Tuesday. "If this gets repealed, I've got to give $30 million of your money, Mr. and Mrs. Public, and it's coming out of property taxes, and I don't want to raise your property taxes. That's going to be the discussion we're going to have."

Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation -- a group of Pittsburgh-area hospitality industry members -- is driving the anti-drink tax efforts. They have seven weeks to gather 50,000 signatures on their petition.

Opponents of the tax also suggest Onorato asked for the tax, but the Onorato administration said it was the state Legislature's choice, not the county's.

They said the original bill listed 10 different possibilities for dedicated transit funding, but state lawmakers rejected the other options.

When asked if the controversy over how to fund the Port Authority is now a choice between keeping the drink tax and raising property taxes, Onorato's administration said "absolutely." Officials said the county can only collect taxes authorized by Harrisburg.

When it comes to taxing property, the Onorato administration told WTAE Channel 4 that property taxes would need to go up by 13 percent to cover the loss if the drink tax is repealed.

For the owner of a $50,000 home, that means you'd pay $30 more.

If your home is worth $100,000, double those numbers.

But drink tax opponents said, "No," and that raising property taxes would be unnecessary. They claim the tax wasn't for transit, but to cover the county's budget problems.

Critics suggest the county seek payments in lieu of taxes from the owners of certain tax exempt properties, increase fees charged by the county, better manage and collect under the current property tax system.

The Onorato administration said if the county doesn't give the nearly $30 million local match to the Port Authority, the company would have to shut down, because it would also lose nearly $300 million in state and federal matching funds.

But drink tax critics have also suggested more cost cutting. They say there's money to be saved at the Port Authority and in county government.

The Onorato administration fired back, saying it cut 700 jobs over the past four years, and county government is very lean now. The Port Authority eliminated 30 routes last summer and 29 more in January.

That's when the base fare went up to $2, a 25-cent increase.

According to Onorato's press secretary, he has accepted an offer to debate some F.A.C.T. members on the drink tax. No date or time has been set.