HARRISBURG -- The state's student-loan agency yesterday released records detailing how its board spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on trips to lavish resorts as far away as California between 2000 and 2005.

The records were the second batch of documents that the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency made available to three news organizations after it spent 19 months trying to block public access, largely on grounds that the documents contain "trade secrets."

They included receipts for golf outings, banquets, spa treatments and entertainment related to a three-day, $135,638 retreat in June 2005 to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. PHEAA paid an $8,000 deposit plus a check written for $180, leaving a balance of $127,458 at the end of the event.

One invoice sorted the expenses into three broad categories, the largest of which was more than $79,000 for meals, events and meeting expenses.

Dinners alone amounted to more than $47,000 over three days, one of which featured a "Tour of Italy" themed dinner buffet, a mashed-potato bar, and carving stations with bourbon honey mustard-glazed ham and southern-fried turkey breast. The total included a bar tab of $10,726.

Another category included $21,308 in expenses related to "client appreciation." Spa treatments totaling $9,542 accounted for the largest single expense in that category, followed by almost $9,000 for golf outings.

More than $34,000 in expenses were related to lodging.

The board has also taken trips to resorts in California's Napa Valley, Maryland's Eastern Shore, Virginia and West Virginia.

PHEAA spokesman Keith New said yesterday that although the retreats were similar to events used by the agency's competitors to cultivate business, the board ended the practice of taking retreats about two years ago. The board is also working on revisions to its travel policy that it will consider at a meeting later this month.

"We believe that by working smarter and with more integrity than our competitors, we will achieve the same high level of business success without the need for those types of events," New said.

The Associated Press and the Patriot-News of Harrisburg filed requests seeking records of retreats by PHEAA's 20-member board, which includes 16 elected state legislators.

On Feb. 28, PHEAA released more than 13,000 pages of receipts and vouchers sought by WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh for airfare, hotel rooms, meals and other expenses incurred by PHEAA's 2,700 employees between 2003 and 2005.

PHEAA uses income from its student-loan business to pay for its operating costs, which totaled about $261 million last year. But it also received around $500 million a year in state tax dollars that it spent on college grants and subsidies.

The news organizations filed requests for various pieces of financial information under the state Right-to-Know Law in the summer of 2005. Their dispute with PHEAA set the stage for litigation that the state Commonwealth Court decided in the news companies' favor. The state Supreme Court upheld that decision in an order last month.