When Allegheny County implemented its new 10 percent drink tax, county Treasurer John Weinstein went to work on implementing the levy, but he was worried restaurateurs and bar owners would not comply with the tax they bitterly opposed.

With more than $2.5 million collected from about 80 percent of the restaurateurs and bar owners in the county this week, Mr. Weinstein contends the drink tax has passed its first real test -- compliance -- albeit with some bookkeeping problems.

"For our first collection, I am very pleased with the voluntary compliance we got even though there were a lot of errors," said Mr. Weinstein. The initial payments from the levy, which are paid monthly and are due on the 25th of the succeeding month, were due on Monday.

And with 1,576 of 2,200 eligible liquor license holders voluntarily complying with the tax as of yesterday, Mr. Weinstein said his office had received the bulk of the first month's payment.

"Considering this is the first new tax we have had to collect in a few years, we did well," he said. "But now we're going to go out there and start knocking on doors and asking everybody who didn't pay, 'tell us why?' "

To that end, Mr. Weinstein plans to hire four people who will be charged with sifting through the drink tax receipts to identify restaurateurs and bar owners who did not file a return.

"Our goal is to educate the people who had problems filing, but our big push will be to contact everyone who received a drink tax form, but did not file a return," he said, adding that restaurateurs and bar owners who filled out forms incorrectly with wrong calculations would not be penalized, this time.

The county's drink tax, and a $2-a-day tax on car rentals, were approved last year and were created to help fund the county's $30 million subsidy of the Port Authority.

Mr. Weinstein, who had to create a new tax division with a staff of 12 to implement both levies, said his office is in the process of compiling a database of the restaurateurs, bar owners, social clubs and banquet halls that complied with the drink tax.

The list will be cross-checked against all 2,200 liquor license holders who were sent drink tax forms, he said.

According to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, Allegheny County has 1,902 active liquor licenses including restaurants, bars and taverns, hotels, airport restaurants and club licenses, which are affected by the drink tax.

But some license holders whose licenses are held in safekeeping by the PLCB also received tax forms.

When a licensed establishment is closed for more than 15 consecutive days, the licensee is required to return the license to the PLCB. When the business is ready to reopen, it can request a return of the license.

Mr. Weinstein said he expects all license holders to file returns with his office, even if it is to notify him that a license is in safekeeping and the business owes no returns.

In its first month, the drink tax yielded $2.57 million in revenue, while the car rental levy, which was due on Feb. 15, brought in $267,000, combining for a total of $2.84 million from both levies, said Mr. Weinstein.

He projected that based on January's revenues alone, the county could see about $34 million in revenues from both levies this year, well beyond the $30 million county Chief Executive Dan Onorato projected would be raised by the levies when he proposed them last year.

"But this is just one month's revenue," Mr. Weinstein cautioned. "We can't comfortably extrapolate what we can expect from these taxes every year based on just one month."

Kevin Evanto, Mr. Onorato's spokesman, agreed.

"It looks like we are on target to come in [with drink tax returns] where we had planned, but we cannot make extrapolations of what to expect based on one month alone," said Mr. Evanto.

Since implementing both the drink and car rental taxes in January, Mr. Onorato has been under considerable pressure from a lobby of restaurateurs and bar owners who oppose the drink tax.

They would like Mr. Onorato to consider a cap on the drink tax if it brings in more revenue than he projected and possibly scrap the levy by the end of this month if other revenue sources can be identified.

But Mr. Evanto yesterday said that Mr. Onorato is not planning any modifications to the drink tax until later this year during the county's budget deliberations.

"Mr. Onorato has consistently said if there need to be any changes, they will be done as part of the budget process in October," Mr. Evanto said.