HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania taxpayers this year will provide $317 million to help Penn State pay its bills, and an additional $351 million to the three other state-related universities - the University of Pittsburgh, Temple and Lincoln.

But don't bother asking Penn State to disclose any individual salaries - including the wage and benefit package awarded Joe Paterno, the legendary head football coach who received a four-year extension on his contract in May. The state-related schools long ago were exempted from Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law.

The University of Pittsburgh, like Penn State, also cites its exemption from the law to justify not disclosing the pay of its new big-name football coach, former Miami Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt, who was hired in December.

"I don't think it should really matter," said Jeff Nelson, Penn State's athletic department spokesman. "The only thing that really should matter is what kind of job he is doing as the football coach and as someone who is helping young men through the university and preparing them for life."

The state-related schools have been subject to significant financial disclosure rules under a separate state law passed in the mid-1990s - Penn State's budget is available online, and the school releases other spending details through its public relations office.

But the schools have zealously guarded their Right-to-Know Law exemption - and they have extended their right to secrecy to more than just salaries of their prominent coaches.

At Penn State, for example, it means the school also won't disclose the cost of running a board of trustees meeting, or some contracts it has with outside vendors - including its deal with online music service Napster that gives students access to free streaming music and limited downloads.

"For years, I mean years, we get a couple editorials written by Pennsylvania papers: 'Why won't Penn State open its budget?'" said Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon. "If what you really meant to write about is an editorial saying we want the coach's salary, we don't want to do that. It's worked out well for Penn State."

The schools argue making individual salary amounts public could demoralize faculty, allow competing schools to poach top professors and be unfair to employees hired at a time when their pay was not public or to donors who were promised anonymity. Average salary amounts by job classification, however, are released.Penn State's faculty is divided over whether individual salaries should be disclosed, said forest biology professor Kim Steiner, chairman of the university's faculty senate.Steiner said the school releases enough salary data broken down by school, campus and job classification to give its 5,000-plus faculty members a good sense of how they compare. He personally opposes releasing individual salaries."I think it would create a lot of ill will, envy toward individuals that I just don't think would be productive," Steiner said.Pitt and Temple spokesmen declined comment, and Lincoln's spokesman did not return phone messages seeking comment.Last fall, a Penn State journalism student, Renee Petrina, wrote a series of columns in the Daily Collegian about her requests for the costs of trustees meetings from the university - and from Pitt, Indiana (Pa.) University and the State System of Higher Education. Only Indiana and the state system gave her what she asked for."How much does all this cost, and what are we spending money on?" said Petrina, now a copy editor at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. "When I went into it, I knew I wasn't going to get anything from Penn State."The 14-school State System of Higher Education was specifically made subject to the Right-to-Know Law when the Legislature revised it in 2002, but it was already following a long-standing policy to respond to information requests as if the law applied to the system, said spokesman Tom Gluck.Earlier this year, the system announced a pay raise for Chancellor Judy Hample, to $305,935.Penn State president Graham Spanier's salary isn't released, but the Chronicle of Higher Education put his salary and benefits at $395,000 in 1999.The four state-related schools are required by law to provide some information on their finances to the public, and the governor and secretaries of education and agriculture serve as ex-officio members of Penn State's board of trustees.Mahon noted the four aren't alone - Pennsylvania's fully private colleges and universities also receive considerable state subsidies without being subject to the Right-to-Know Law."In fact, at some schools, you're getting into hundreds of thousands of dollars in state spending," he said.In the past, when the Legislature has considered forcing the state-related schools to comply with the Right-to-Know Law, the schools have said doing so could subject them to abusive demands for records and increase administrative costs to field requests.Petrina doesn't buy their argument, particularly as someone who has paid tuition to a state-related university."I'd liken it to being a shareholder," she said. "Why don't I have access? When you own stock you can find out what the company's doing with your money."