HARRISBURG — A proposal to fully include Penn State and the other three “state-related” universities under the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law passed an early test in a committee vote Monday, although Democrats were split on the issue.

The State Government Committee approved the bill, which also would pertain to the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Lincoln University. The four state-related universities get substantial state funding but are not state-owned, as are the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education.

A complete rewriting of the Right-to-Know Law that took effect in January 2009 requires the schools to provide some records, including the salaries of their highest-paid employees, but exempts the great portion of their information from mandatory disclosure.

All Republicans and three of nine Democrats on the committee voted for it.

Rep. Mark Cohen of Philadelphia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and one of the six “no” votes, said the four schools were accustomed to operating with more authority and expressed concern about the cost to establish an open records officer and begin fielding requests.

Other schools, such as the University of Pennsylvania, get state funding but are “untrammeled” by the public records bill, Cohen said.

“We have to decide where we’re going to draw the line” between state subsidies that trigger the need for the Right-to-Know Law and those that do not, Cohen said. “Is $10 million the limit? Is $50 million the limit?”

The state’s hundreds of public school districts are covered under the law already, said Rep. Fred Keller, R-Union. The state-related universities, Keller said, “need to decide whether or not they want the state money.”

Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said that although the school supported accountability, “we do not support Right-to-Know legislation that treats Penn State as a state agency — because we are not a state agency.”