Joe Sestak believes Penn State and the other state-related universities in Pennsylvania ought to be more transparent about their spending, the U.S. senatorial nominee said Thursday.

"Everybody should be transparent," Sestak, a Democrat, said during a campaign stop at the Centre County Grange Encampment and Fair. "That would discipline a lot of things. ... I think it incentivizes better behavior because it's open."

Sestak, facing Republican Pat Toomey in the Nov. 2 general election, spoke with StateCollege.com for about 25 minutes. Much of the conversation centered on higher education, Penn State in particular.

Under state transparency rules, the university is required to issue an annual Right-to-Know Report that delineates some key financial data and summaries. Those details include top executives' salaries, top-paid contractors, income sources and a variety of expense categories.

Penn State also posts an array of budget summaries on its website, including category-by-category overviews of administrative and other departmental expenses.

But some levels of budgetary detail are not, as a matter of practice, made public. For instance, the university generally does not release financial specifics about many agreements with outside vendors, contractors and other business partners. Expenses for individual business trips and events are not broken down publicly, either. Nor are compensation figures for many non-executive employees.

The university does not fall fully under the auspices of the state Right-to-Know Act, which ensures open, public access to most records of government bodies. Penn State receives more than $300 million a year from Harrisburg, but that amounts to less than 10 percent of its overall budget. The university also receives millions in federal funding, largely for research projects.

Sestak, of Delaware County, has advocated for strengthened budget-transparency standards for all universities that receive federal dollars. Asked whether Penn State has done enough to limit its tuition rates, Sestak said he could not make that determination.

The university has some of the highest public-university tuition rates in the country.

"I think we can help the accountability with transparency," Sestak said. "I don't think there's enough transparency right now to know" if Penn State has done enough to control costs.

Penn State officials often note that Pennsylvania's state funding of higher education is some of the least generous in the U.S. That, they have said, puts more pressure on Penn State to raise tuition rates.

But "my take on it is, we just need to know more," Sestak said. He said public calls for government accountability -- in general -- are among the most repeated refrains he hears on the campaign trail.

If elected, Sestak said, he will work on the university-transparency issue. He said it fits into his larger emphasis on encouraging federal-government accountability. That drive for transparency, he said, asks the question: "If you are taking federal money, how transparent are you?"

StateCollege.com has asked Toomey's campaign to weigh in on these issues, as well, and will post updates as they become available.

Earlier coverage

• Sestak Plans Stop at Grange Fair