Free Republic

Cow Palace, prison among properties that could yield state billions SACRAMENTO -- State-owned landmarks such as the Bay Area's Cow Palace and San Quentin Prison are among 50 properties Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger administration officials are deciding whether to sell in the wake of a quietly released report. The estimated $5 billion in proceeds would be used to offset part of California's nagging, multibillion-dollar budget deficit, under a measure voters approved Nov. 2 that urges sales of surplus property. The new analysis of state land was conducted as part of Schwarzenegger's ambitious intention to shuffle and streamline the state bureaucracy --...

<p>In 1931, in the throes of the Great Depression, the state Legislature spent $250,000 to build a livestock pavilion in San Francisco.</p> <p>A newspaper questioned the logic, asking, "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a palace for cows?"</p>

<p>The more one follows the antics of the government, the more one has to question why so many politicians and voters believe the government is the answer to most every problem.</p> <p>State Sens. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, and Jeff Denham, R-Salinas, recently proposed legislation that would create a database by which the state government can track its properties, according to a Register article last week. The goal is to sell some of the state government's vast land holdings - including vacant land and housing in Hawaii - to raise $1 billion to chip away at the $17 billion budget deficit.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO – The state's inventory controls were thrown into disarray over the past three decades because state agencies petitioned the Legislature and were granted permission to buy tracts of land and fleets of cars with no outside oversight.</p> <p>The Department of General Services was the original "control agency," state officials said, but the approval process for purchasing equipment and property dragged and made state government inefficient. Soon, agencies and departments were lining up before the Legislature, asking to be freed from the stranglehold.</p>