BUDGET MESSAGE 643

faculty and administrative salaries of all State colleges and the Uni-
versity of Maryland.

The 1969 budget reflects the administration's continued dedication
to improving the quality and availability of higher education for more
of our younger citizens. Recommended appropriations for the Uni-
versity of Maryland total $78. 6 million, an increase of $7. 6 million,
or nearly 10 percent over the present fiscal year. Those for State col-
leges are $24. 8 million, an increase of $3. 2 million or 13 percent over
the 1968 budget. A comparison of the overall 1969 appropriation in-
crease of 7. 7 percent with the percentage increases recommended for
our State institutions of higher learning demonstrates the high priority
placed by the administration in this area of State service.

OTHER PROGRAMS

While the present revenue situation has forced a curtailment of
growth in some State services in the operating budget, I have tried
to allow a full, normal expansion of planned facilities in the capital
budget, financed from long-term bond issues.

The separate bond bill includes 132 projects at an estimated cost
of |51, 098, 100. Among the projects are a new $8. 5 million State Labo-
ratory Building for the Health Department in Baltimore; construction
of a $3. 2 million Comprehensive Vocational Rehabilitation Center
which will enable the State to provide modern training for many more
of its physically handicapped in a long neglected area of State service;
construction of a 60-bed unit for the severely retarded at Rosewood;
provision of planning funds for the second stage (300 additional beds)
at the Center for the Mentally Retarded in the Washington Metro-
politan Area; and construction of a School of Architecture Building at
the University of Maryland.

It is important to note that more than 80 percent of the projects
allowed in the capital budget are for higher and special education,
health and mental hygiene, and natural resources development.

I would also like to invite your attention to several specific items —
some of relatively small amount but all of far-reaching importance —
in the State operating budget:

Graduate Corps — Through the minimal expenditure of $60, 000,
State government has an opportunity to inaugurate a model manage-
ment training program. In a commencement address last June at the
University of Maryland, I called for the creation of a Graduate Corps
to attract and enlist Maryland's brightest young minds into State