Mayor Bloomberg floated a new plan yesterday to break the deadlock at Ground Zero - take millions of dollars away from Moynihan Station.

 Three hours later, Sen. Chuck Schumer threw cold water on the mayor's idea, saying, "I would be totally opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul."

 It was the first time the long-stalled plan to replace gloomy Penn Station with a handsome new transit hub had figured in the ferocious debate over the World Trade Center site.

 "We can't have a big hole in the ground," Bloomberg said on his radio show. "Maybe we can get Congress to help and reallocate some of the funds for projects that probably aren't going to get done in the short term, like...Moynihan Station."

 Aides said the mayor was referring to a $2 billion pot of unused tax credits that Congress had put aside after 9/11, but never appropriated, for unspecified transportation projects in New York.

 A big chunk of those funds was expected to help pay for the $3 billion transportation mecca in the landmark Farley Post Office, which will be named for the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

 Bloomberg made his comments during a broadside against the Port Authority, which he blames for five weeks of failed talks with developer Larry Silverstein over financing for three mega-office towers along Church St.

 Tapping Moynihan money would be a "tough lift," the mayor acknowledged, but worth attempting to break the impasse over the 16-acre site.

 Not so fast, New York's senior senator warned: The federal funds "should not be used as the basis for any compromise at Ground Zero."

 Schumer added, "As for Moynihan Station, it's closer than the mayor thinks, and I would be totally opposed to robbing Peter to pay Paul regarding the future of Moynihan Station."