I think, understand the problem and the basic requirements for its
solution. The Attorney General, the Legislative Council and scores
of other citizens of our State have devoted hundreds of hours to
studying reapportionment legislation and judicial action. The At-
torney General has assured me that he and members of his staff will
be at your service throughout the session. In conclusion, it is my
considered opinion that this problem of reapportionment is the most
serious assignment the General Assembly has been called upon to
resolve during my almost seven years as your Governor. I have every
confidence that you will face the task with courage and forthrightness
and that reapportionment of the General Assembly will be accom-
plished in the true Maryland tradition of justice, personal integrity
and fair play.

THE STATE OF THE STATE AND ABBREVIATED BUDGET

MESSAGE

January 19, 1966

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the General
Assembly:

It is with a feeling of joy mixed with sadness that I address you
here at the opening of this 1966 session of the General Assembly —
joy because it is a pleasure always to greet you as you assemble for
this task and sadness with the sharp realization that this is the last
full session that I will share with you. As we move into the final
months of our tenure — you as legisators and I as executive — it is grat-
ifying to note some of the progress we have made; it is satisfying to
observe that our State government is stable and sound and that the
conditions under which the citizens of our State are living for the
most part are favorable. There is much that we can accomplish in the
next 70 days for the progress of our State and for the prosperity and
happiness of the people. This must be our objective as we settle down
to the task before us, and no effort should be spared to attain it.

When I became Maryland's fifty-ninth elected Governor seven years
ago, I said in my inaugural address that I conceived it to be the
"principal task of my Administration to achieve these new standards
(and I had in mind expanding governmental services adequate for
a growing, prosperous, enlightened State) and at the same time to
preserve the financial integrity of the State. " Four year later, when
I took the oath for the term I am now serving, I repeated the obser-

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