Proposed legislation could shed more light on how Penn State spends tuition and tax dollars.

"Come hell or high water, I'll be pushing this bill," state Rep. Tim Mahoney, R-Fayette, said of the bill he drafted before his election in November.

The bill, which Mahoney is currently "fine-tuning," would disclose the information relating to any state-aided universities and colleges, authorities and inter-governmental agencies, and any organization that receives at least 25 percent of its funding from tax dollars.

The bill focuses primarily on governmental information and proposes an Office of Access to Public Records that will cater to record requests.

According to Mahoney, information cannot be withheld unless the person requesting it intends to use the information for financial gain.

Under the bill, information would be available within 10 business days of a request.

"The public hasn't been paying enough attention. Now they are paying attention because it is affecting everyone's pocket. I'm sure paying attention," Mahoney said. "Tax payers don't really know how their money is being spent."

According to the University Budget Office, the total operating budget for 2006-2007 is $3,209,165,000.

Bill Mahon, Penn State spokesman, said he has no problems with the proposed legislation.

"There are a number of newspapers over the years who have demanded Penn State make budget information available. This usually comes from newspapers who haven't checked our Web site," he said. "You can literally find hundreds and hundreds of pages of budget information."

However, Mahoney said that under his bill, institutions would have to further break down the budget information they currently make available to account for spending within certain categories.

Nick Stathes, Undergraduate Student Government president, said hundreds and hundreds of pages is not enough.

"They don't have the complete budget breakdown. You can only see lump sums," he said. "Many legislators have explained to me that the reason Penn State doesn't receive more funding from the state is because it won't completely open their budget. If Penn State is truly being fiscally responsible, they should show that to everyone."

State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, said, in general, he supports open records, but Mahoney's bill has a long way to go before it can be passed.

"It needs to be narrowed," Benninghoff said. "If it's too broadly written, it will die under its own weight. Then, there will probably be several public hearings at which time I believe the universities will have a word on it. It could include stuff the university doesn't want out there."

Mahoney said the public can't expect to have access to some information, such as the highly sought-after salary of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno.

"I think any personal salaries we are going to keep out of that," Mahoney said. "But I'm sure you could figure it out if you wanted to, as far as where the overall salaries are."

Mahon said average salaries of Penn State employees are also available on the university's Web site.

Personal information left out of Mahoney's bill includes social security numbers and personal medical histories, records for certain legal disputes, records of danger to public security, corporate trade information in addition to records pre-announcing plans of a governor.

He added that, specifically, the names of certain scholarship recipients should remain confidential.

Mahoney said he hopes his bill leads to an overall reform of educational funding.

"A lot of taxpayer monies are going to these colleges. I don't know what the figure is, but it's going to grow," he said. "Sooner or later, we will have to change how we finance education. I don't think the state can go much further on how they are funding public schools, let alone colleges."