HARRISBURG - Penn State employees such as football coach Joe Paterno should be treated the same as other participants in a government-sponsored retirement system by making their salaries public, lawyers for the retirement system and a newspaper argued in newly filed court papers.

The State Employees' Retirement System and The Patriot-News of Harrisburg want the state Supreme Court to turn down a request by Penn State to reconsider a lower-court ruling making public the salaries of Paterno and three high-ranking administrators.

The retirement board and the paper said in briefs filed over the past week that the 3-2 Commonwealth Court ruling in August, declaring the salaries public, correctly interpreted Pennsylvania's Right-to-Know Law.

"An active state contract's essential terms and conditions and accounts maintained by a state agency, such as the identity of the parties to the contract, the value of the contract and amounts contributed to the contract's accounts, are public records," retirement system deputy chief counsel Brian McDonough wrote.

In asking the Supreme Court to take up the case, Penn State argued that the privacy rights of its four employees - and potentially thousands of others - would be violated by disclosing their salaries, years of service and salary history.