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the hands of citizens who will have to have meaningful

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information on which to base their judgments about

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operations of state and local governments, and the actions of

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the officials they represent.

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My answer is that the right to know is a

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necessary and valuable safeguard which we should add to

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our Constitution with the opportunity for the legislature

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to take a comprehensive view of the entire field of

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government and to make such determination of the areas

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which are to be protected as they deem wise.

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New York's recent constitutinal convention

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pioneered a section on access to government records, and

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that section was haled as one of the important achievements

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of that convention.

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It stemmed in part from a controversy concerning

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the New York Port Authority which refused to make public

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some of its records. The problem basically, as it appeared

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to me, was that it was the desire of the authority not to

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disclose its funding policy, and I think that we are not

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without this kind of a problem in Maryland, and I think it

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is the kind of a problem which may grow.