PROVIDENCE — The state’s transportation agencies need more money, legislators said at a House Finance Committee hearing yesterday, but they want a lot of questions answered first, including some that go to the roots of the way the agencies work.

Chairman Steven M. Costantino said that he believes that the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority needs more money.

There are, he said, “tremendous public transit needs” in the state. There are also, he said, “tremendous infrastructure needs,” a reference to the Department of Transportation, the other state agency that says it’s in deep financial trouble.

But Costantino and other committee members said they have a lot of questions they want answered at a series of hearings on the state’s transportation funding crisis.

Some of the questions are very specific, such as how RIPTA officials came up with the list of bus routes they say could be cut or subject to service reductions to cover a growing budget deficit.

“What’s the pay structure?” Costantino wanted to know about RIPTA. “What’s the route structure?”

But some are very broad. For example, Costantino said he wants “to establish whether or not we have a transportation policy in the State of Rhode Island.” He said that the agencies may have their own policies, but that “whether we have a statewide policy remains to be seen.”

House fiscal adviser Michael O’Keefe said he hasn’t seen a single document that says what’s wanted. “There’s not a single transportation-needs document,” he said.

Yesterday’s hearing, unusual in taking place long before the legislative session starts in January, was the first formal move by the General Assembly into what is generally considered a state transportation funding crisis. The committee hearing room was filled with DOT, RIPTA and other transportation officials who listened, but did not speak. The committee heard a presentation of the agencies’ financing and spending arrangements by its staff and then adjourned, promising more hearings on individual agencies.

There are at least five state agencies involved in transportation, either supplying it directly or helping make it happen. Besides RIPTA and the DOT, there are the Turnpike and Bridge Authority, which operates the Pell and Mount Hope bridges, the Airport Corporation and the state Rail Corporation.

The DOT and RIPTA say they are in serious trouble right now. The DOT says it needs about $300 million more per year — roughly the same as its current budget — to put the state’s failing bridges and highways back in good repair. RIPTA officials say that if the authority’s estimated $10-million deficit isn’t covered and it doesn’t make major service cuts, it will run out of money before the fiscal year ends in June.

There were two threads to the hearing. First, Costantino and some members said they want to impose some order on the state’s transportation programs. They said they are sick of what they repeatedly referred to as the “Band-Aid” approach, or responding only to crises with stop-gap solutions.

But other committee members said their constituents have problems that need to be dealt with now. “Some of these agencies need immediate attention,” said Rep. John P. Shanley Jr., D-South Kingstown.

Several legislators are unhappy that bus lines through their districts may be eliminated.

Rep. William San Bento Jr., D-Pawtucket, said he’s worried about the Pawtucket River bridge on Route 95. Its beams are badly rusted and the state has imposed restrictions that ban large trucks.

“I don’t know how safe that bridge is, and I don’t know how long it’s going to be standing up,” San Bento said. (The DOT insists that the bridge is safe.)

Afterward, RIPTA officials gathered around Costantino to plead their case. They largely got questions instead, such as “What’s the five-year plan for RIPTA?” Costantino also said he still wants to know how RIPTA turned a $400,000 budget surplus in March into a $5-million deficit by April. RIPTA has blamed that largely on increase in the price of diesel fuel.

However, Costantino said, even if RIPTA is made as efficient as possible, “I still think you’re going to need an infusion of resources.”

blandis@projo.com

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the Pawtucket River Bridge.