in November. However, a skeptical General Assembly delayed passage of the convention enabling bill such that delegates were not elected until November 1967, to be seated the following month. Reforms approved by the electorate following this convention, at the primary election in April 1968, included revisions to home rule, audit of state finances, and a new unified judiciary under the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Shafer emerged as a national figure in the moderate wing of the Republican Party during the 1968 presidential election, giving the nominating speech for New York governor Nelson Rockefeller at the 1968 Republican National Convention, although the delegates instead chose former Vice President Richard Nixon as the party's presidential candidate. Shafer himself had received votes in Pennsylvania's presidential primary and initially received support from a majority of Pennsylvania's 64-member convention delegation as a favorite son candidate; he used this leverage in a partially successful attempt to move the Pennsylvania delegation into Rockefeller's column. After Shafer's death, his surviving children told The New York Times that Nixon had offered Shafer the vice presidential spot to balance the ticket with an Eastern moderate, though there is no surviving record to that effect. Nixon ultimately chose Maryland governor Spiro Agnew as his running mate. Shafer oversaw an expansion of Pennsylvania's highway system, dedicated several portions of the Interstate Highway System in the state, and authorized a merger of four agencies to form the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). Large expenditures for education and health programs Shafer authorized caused budget deficits by the 1969–70 fiscal year. In an effort to balance the budget, Shafer sought Pennsylvania's first state income tax, a move which made him unpopular with many voters, though he later settled for an increase in the state sales tax. Ultimately, Shafer's successor as governor, Milton Shapp, signed into law a state income tax with bipartisan support. During Shafer's administration, state funding for public education increased by 33%, with public school teachers' salaries increasing by a similar proportion, and post-secondary educational institutions received approximately $114 million in additional funding from the state. Reflecting near the end of his administration, Shafer said he believed that his having prioritized constitutional reforms and public expenditure ahead of tax reform may have precipitated some of the fiscal strain the state faced by 1971, which included deficits as a result of such expenditure. Shafer also oversaw the state government's response to the 1969 York