This press release came over the transom earlier today from Sen. Lou Correa's office, trumpeting the progress of Lou's SB 977:

Senate Bill  977 authored by State Senator Lou Correa with the sponsorship of the California Senior Legislature, passed the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care yesterday. This measure would instruct the California Commission on Aging to look at a variety of recent studies and data to assess the future needs for California Senior Centers.
 
The state of California has not made a serious investment in its senior centers since the passage of the Senior Center Bond Act of 1984, Proposition 30.  Nearly a quarter century has passed since California voters approved the measure, and these studies are vital to determining the state's current and future senior center infrastructure needs.

In addition to conducting an independent review of these studies, the bill would instruct the Commission to hold a meeting of senior leaders to determine the completeness and scope of their data.  Once that is completed, the Commission would report back to the Senate Subcommittee on Aging and Long-Term Care and the Assembly Committee on Aging and Long-Term Care.  The goal of this review is to ensure that the state has a complete and accurate picture of the overall needs of senior centers throughout California.  This information is necessary to have an educated and responsible discussion about a new Senior Center Infrastructure Bond. 

I sometimes wonder if legislators introduce bills for the sake of introducing bills, in order to justify their existence.

Or in this case, in order to trumpet SB 977 in mail targeting senior voters when Lou runs for re-election in 2010.

The state government is hemorrhaging red ink. It can't even handle the myriad responsibilities we have handed to it. Might I humbly suggest state legislators like Sen. Correa focus on fixing the problems at  hand, rather than worrying about the state of California's senior centers? Given the state government's incompetence, do we even want it involved in concocting some Master Plan for Senior Centers?

And another bond measure?

Senior centers are about as local government as it gets. Sacramento has no business "determining the state's Senior center infrastructure needs." I dispute there is even such a thing as a state having "senior center infrastructure needs."

A city may need to add or renovate its senior center, but that's its business, not the state's.