Hand it to Gov. Tom Corbett on this one.

The man can keep a secret.

For weeks, reporters have been trying every approach they know to get early insights about his proposed Pennsylvania budget.

We've gone the official route, bugging the gubernatorial press office.

We've gone the unofficial route, bugging people who might know something -- anything -- about the governor's spending plan, angling for even just a sliver of detail.

And what have we got to show for it?

From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, it seems, our results are the same:

For the most part, nothing -- give or take.

The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, in a joint news report, have come the closest to having something. In a Sunday report, they reported -- without citing named sources -- that the governor is likely to pursue big cuts in education and Medicaid spending, and unlikely to push immediate privatization of the state liquor stores.

Also unlikely: that Corbett will lobby for an extraction tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas, according to the Inquirer-Post-Gazette report.

Still, numbers-specific details remain in short supply. Not even the most official of Penn State officialdom appears to have as much as an inkling of exactly what's in store for proposed higher-education funding.

Like the Post-Gazette and Inquirer journalists, though, veteran reporter Tom Barnes expects state support for higher education to take a hit. Barnes noted in his blog that education, at roughly $11 billion, is the single biggest item in the state's current budget.

Close to $350 million of that -- in the current year's budget -- is designated for Penn State.

If you figure that Corbett has to fill a $4 billion state-budget gap, and you assume that he's not going to propose raising any taxes, you could probably venture a very rough bet that he'll propose cuts of at least 14 percent in big expenses areas. (The current state budget is about $28 billion. Fourteen percent of that is about $4 billion.)

Going along with that rationale, we could guess further that perhaps Penn State may see a $50 million cut in its state support next year, bringing its appropriation to roughly $300 million.

That's some $64 million less than what the university trustees have sought from the state for the 2011-2012 academic year. With state funding at $364 million for 2011-2012, university President Graham Spanier has said, Penn State could hold tuition increases next year to 4.9 percent for in-state students at University Park and 2.9 percent at the Commonwealth Campuses. Out-of-state students would see increases of 3.5 percent at University Park and 2.9 percent at the other campuses.

But that seems increasingly unlikely. Instead, a combination of higher tuition increases and greater expense (read: program and job) reductions seems the most probable scenario if state legislators agree to downsize higher-education funding substantially.

At this hour, though, it all remains a mystery.

And so it will remain until 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, when Corbett is scheduled to deliver his first annual budget address.

It will appear live on PCN.

We'll be watching.

Earlier coverage

• Spanier: Penn State 'Trying to Guard against a Massive Cut' in State Support (Dec. 8, 2010)