do. The Department of Motor Vehicles, for example, has been re-
vamped and reconstituted to enable it to handle the extra work
assigned to it. The State Police has been strengthened annually since
we took office. In the budget I am submitting to you today, this policy
is continued.

In the printed message which you are receiving today, programs
and departmental activities are treated in considerable detail, but
the time limitation compels me to be more brief in this address.

I am asking you to increase the budget of the Department of
Public Welfare in the amount of $2, 511, 162. The increase reflects,
among other things, an expansion of the case load, improved food
standards and a boost in the board rates for boarding children.

Additional appropriations are recommended in both the operational
and capital budgets of the Department of Forests and Parks to ex-
pedite the acquisition of land and the development of parks and
recreational facilities.

Our Department of Planning is making headway in its effort
to achieve a balanced, integrated program for the development and
employment of the natural and human resources of the State.

The threat of thermonuclear warfare has sharpened popular inter-
est in civil defense, and our Civil Defense Agency is standing in
readiness to give the closest possible cooperation to the Federal
Government in the shelter program.

Now, I should like to direct your attention to some matters which
in my judgment greatly affect the public interest and which, there-
fore, deserve your consideration and action at this thirty-day session.
The question of a reapportionment of the general assembly to give
a more equitable representation to the more populous subdivisions
remains unsettled, and I believe this issue should be resolved at
this session. You had a bill before you last year which was narrowly
defeated in the House of Delegates. A similar measure, with a signifi-
cant amendment providing automatic revisions with population
changes, will be introduced at this session.

I respectfully urge you to support this measure.

You will have before you, also, a bill, drafted by a committee I
appointed last year, to establish a State supervisor, but privately
operated, program for insuring the deposits of non-federally-insured
savings and loan associations. In the interest of further safeguarding
the investments of our citizens in these institutions, I solicit your
support of this bill.

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