NEWS CONFERENCE 109

good of the people of Maryland and not to circumvent their desires.
I'm still to some extent worried about what could develop with certain
legislation that remains in an undecided category. I'm worried about
the open housing legislation. And I feel that we have an opportunity
to set a precedent in Maryland, a precedent that will reveal our sensi-
tivity to the needs of other people, a precedent that will keep from
our streets this summer any possibility of violence, that will firmly
establish our dedication to fairness for all our citizens. And I sincerely
trust that this bill will not be blocked as it finally reaches the stages
toward enactment. I'm worried about the bridge crossing laws. Our
State Roads Commission has indicated very firmly that it is ready to
pick up the call for responsibility and do what it thinks is right for
the citizens of this State. I think it is wrong for the Legislature or for
any outside group to attempt to superimpose its wishes on the State
Roads Commission. This is a new Commission under a new Governor
and it at least deserves a chance to function properly without being
foiled and blocked by maneuvering within the legislative body. And
I sincerely hope that that bill, amended or not, will leave us some
room to proceed with the orderly development of the transportation
system of the State of Maryland. There are other bills that are moving
along and it's a little too early to see where they are going, but prin-
cipally it has been a very productive session. It could be an unprece-
dentedly productive session if the leadership is able to continue the
course it has already chartered. I'm now open for your questions.

Q. Governor, the Legislature has cut your budget somewhat and

didn't touch their own increase in salary. Do you have any comment
on that?

A. Not specifically; they have not done as much violence to the
budget as they may have done. There is one place that they have cut
that disturbs me and that is in the economic development area. I
think that the extra monies in this part of the budget were aimed to
the improvement of tourism in the State of Maryland, which was one
of my campaign positions. I pointed out during the campaign that,
for example, the State of Virginia spends a great deal more money in
tourism than we spend in economic development and tourism to-
gether. And I think it's shortsighted, with Maryland having the won-
derful historic heritage that it has, for us not to provide the where-
withal for our Economic Development Commission to stimulate ad-
ditional activity in these old areas of the State — particularly in areas
like Southern Maryland where there becomes immediately apparent
the need to replace the slot machine revenues.