After a five-year legal battle, the public finally may learn what Joe Paterno is paid to coach the Penn State University football team.

The state Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the salaries of Mr. Paterno and three other Penn State administrators are public record.

In a 4-2 decision, Justice James J. Fitzgerald III wrote that such requests "go to the heart" of the state Right to Know Act.

Penn State will not appeal the decision, said Bill Mahon, vice president for university relations, in an e-mail yesterday.

The salary information was not available yesterday from the State Employees' Retirement System. Spokesman Robert Gentzel said the system was awaiting official word from Penn State about any appeal and for legal authorization.

Writing for the majority, Justice Fitzgerald stated that the employees' "privacy rights are insufficient to outweigh the public interest in publication of the factual bases for, and details of, guaranteed disbursements of commonwealth funds."

He said the ruling applies to names, service histories and salaries but not to "information pertinent to an individual's personal security such as addresses, telephone numbers or Social Security numbers."

The case dates to late 2002 when reporter Jan Murphy and the Patriot-News Co. of Harrisburg asked the State Employees' Retirement System for information about salaries and service histories for Mr. Paterno; Rodney Erickson, executive vice president/provost; Gary Schultz, senior vice president/treasurer and Richard Althouse, former budget officer.

As a state-related institution, Penn State is not considered a state agency and thus is exempted under the state's Right to Know law. But the retirement system is a state agency and the law allows for release of salary information for covered employees.

The retirement board issued an order three years ago calling for release of the information, but -- knowing the order would be appealed -- added that such release would not take place until all appeals were exhausted.

Penn State and the four employees appealed to Commonwealth Court, which agreed with the retirement board that the information was public, and then to the state Supreme Court.

Justice Fitzgerald was joined in his opinion by Justices Thomas G. Saylor, J. Michael Eakin and Max Baer.

Justice Cynthia A. Baldwin did not participate because she is a Penn State trustee.

Chief Justice Ralph J. Cappy issued a dissenting opinion, which Justice Ronald J. Castille joined.

Chief Justice Cappy said that the retirement system does not use the salary and service information for any purpose before an employee retires.

"That information may become a public record at the time the retirement benefits are computed and paid by SERS, but until that point, there has been no disbursement of public funds or even the anticipation of disbursement of public funds to the employees under the Right to Know Act," Chief Justice Cappy wrote.

About 36 percent of the university's full-time employees -- 6,252 people -- participate in SERS, according to Mr. Mahon.

Mr. Mahon said the focus of the lawsuit has been Mr. Paterno, whose salary is not paid with state money. Mr. Mahon said the state provides less than 10 percent of the university's funding.

While it is conceivable that Mr. Paterno is among the highest-salaried college football coaches because of his success and longevity, he is almost legendary at Penn State for both his frugality and his generosity to the university.

Mr. Paterno, who has been Penn State's head coach since 1966 and started his coaching career there in 1950, helped raise a reported $15 million for a library expansion that was begun in 1997.

The following year, university officials announced that Mr. Paterno and his wife, Sue, had donated $3.5 million to the school.

Mr. Paterno is the second-winningest coach ever in Division I-A, trailing only Florida State University's Bobby Bowden, who reportedly is paid $1.6 million.

A recent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education listed salaries of football coaches in 2006-07, including W. Mack Brown, University of Texas at Austin, $2.6 million; Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech, $2 million; and Albert M. Groh II, University of Virginia, $1.7 million.

The University of Pittsburgh this year disclosed that its football and basketball coaches were its second- and third-highest-paid employees.

Football coach Dave Wannstedt's salary was reported at $713,138, and basketball coach Jamie Dixon's was $676,712.