(CBS2 HD Exclusive) The doomsday fare hikes and service cuts sought by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority two weeks ago may be put on hold.

CBS 2 HD has learned exclusively that the governor, the mayor and the MTA have crafted a plan to bail out the financial strapped transit agency.

But drivers and employers may not like it.

Just two weeks ago MTA Executive Director Eliot Sander was acting like Chicken Little, saying the sky is falling.

“[Expect] longer travel times, longer wait times and longer walking times,” Sander said in mid November.

But sources tell CBS 2 HD a plan is in the works to bail out the MTA, one that would still require straphangers to pay probably an 8 percent fare hike instead of the 23 percent talked about at the MTA board meeting, and probably some service cuts, but not the Draconian ones transit officials thought they’d have to make.

Drivers are going to have to ante up because the plan as CBS 2 HD has reported exclusively for weeks will require tolls on all four of the East River bridges, which are expected to raise about $900 million.

“We already have tolls at the Battery Tunnel, Midtown Tunnel and the Triborough Bridge. Let’s put pricing on all the crossings in between,” transportation expert “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz said.

The other big piece of the revenue pie, sources said, is a payroll tax in the MTA ridership area of somewhere under half a percent.

City Budget Director Mark Page, who is also an MTA board member, told CBS 2 HD he liked that idea because it would hit people in the suburbs as well as New York City.

“A payroll tax is paid by the employer, which means it’s driven by where you are working and really that’s what the commuter tax was trying to do,” Page said.

Sources said the play will also include budget relief for the city and the state. New York City, for example, would save $250 million by not having to subsidize MTA bus and another $10 million by not having to maintain the bridges.

And the MTA will have to do its part by tightening its belt and eliminating duplicative services and jobs in its various divisions, including buses, subways, commuter rails and toll bridges.

The plan is set to be announced sometime this week.

One source told CBS 2 HD it’s a question of melding the schedules of the governor, the mayor and Richard Ravitch, who chairs the committee that drew up the proposals.

But after the plan is officially announced the hard work of selling it to the people and the Legislature begins.

(Source: WCBSTV / CBS2 HD)