A State Coordinating Commission on Problems of the Aging, which
has assumed the responsibility of directing and coordinating activities
to improve the lives of our older citizens by providing them with health
services, good housing, employment when desired, an ample income and
adequate recreational and educational facilities.

The recently created, and soon to be established Board of Building
Savings and Loan Association Commissioners, which steps into the
heretofore unregulated field of savings and loan operations to safeguard
investors in these associations and to protect the industry itself.

This latter agency, incidentally, was a creation of the recent session
of the General Assembly. And of that session, let me say that our policy
of advancement—by firm but cautious steps—was continued, although
you may have lost sight of that fact in the welter of sensational news
headlines. We adopted a budget which we feel will adequately finance
a wholesome expansion of State programs. The operational budget which
the General Assembly adopted at the recent session calls for expenditures
totaling some $520, 000, 000 and is the largest in the history of the State.
There is a reason for that. The growth of our State during the past
several years has been remarkable. Its population increased by 30 per
cent from 1950 to 1960, and there is every indication that the growth
will be even more rapid in the years ahead. We are pleased to see
cent from 1950 to 1960, and there is every indication that the growth
will be even more rapid in the years ahead. We are pleased to see
Maryland grow, of course, but we must be mindful of the fact that
growth can be a mixed blessing, accompanied by many perplexing prob-
lems.

Along with the increase in population has come an ever-expanding
economy and some drastic changes in the complexion of our society,
including a swift transformation from mostly rural to a predominantly
urban state. Seventy per cent of the people of our State now live in
the great metropolitan areas of Baltimore and Washington. To consider
reducing a budget—or even maintaining it at a current level would be
exceedingly dangerous, and might even be disastrous.

The budget we adopted in Annapolis this year supports existing
programs of service and at the same time provides for a normal, healthy
expansion of services to the people of the State. Schools, hospitals,
mental institutions, highways, parks, nursing homes—institutions and
services too numerous to list here—benefit under its provisions.
Beyond the money it spends for its own housekeeping and maintenance
of services, your State has assumed additional burdens in the financing
of local governments.

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