In 1931, in the throes of the Great Depression, the state Legislature spent $250,000 to build a livestock pavilion in San Francisco.

A newspaper questioned the logic, asking, "Why, when people are starving, should money be spent on a palace for cows?"

The phrase stuck, and today the Cow Palace is a popular venue for concerts, trade shows and, in keeping with its intended purpose, a rodeo.

But lawmakers now have started asking a similar question: Why, when money is so tight, does California still own a palace for cows?

State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Salinas, cited the Cow Palace at a recent news conference with Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, as an example of questionable or surplus state property that should be sold.

They also drew attention to a home in Hawaii owned by the University of California, a golf course near Oakland that was bought nearly 50 years ago for a road expansion that never happened, and a strip mall in San Rafael - also bought for a road project - that has a massage parlor as a tenant.

"We've identified a huge area of waste in the state bureaucracy," Denham said. "There are many different agencies that have huge amounts of state assets, but there is no accountability, no justification."

Denham and Battin have introduced a 10-bill package to inventory and sell state assets. They hope to raise $1 billion.

As for the Cow Palace? "We hope to get a lot of money for it," Denham said.

The site is worth about $86 million - but the state can't have it, said Leonard Stefanelli, vice president of the 1-A District Agricultural Association, the state agency of the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Division of Fairs and Expositions that owns and operates the Cow Palace.

"I disagree that it is surplus," Stefanelli said. "It has tangible and intangible value." Plus, the Cow Palace breaks even and doesn't require state subsidies, he said.

Denham said there might have been good uses for many properties when they were purchased decades ago, but it's time to take a second look.

However, some properties Battin and Denham criticized aren't easy to get rid of, such as a colonial-style Sausalito home owned by the University of California with a great view of San Francisco Bay that they say sits unused, while nearby properties sell for millions.

The home was bequeathed to the school in 1992 with a directive that the 1.75-acre property be used as a botanical garden for 20 years, said Abby Lunardini, a university spokeswoman.

Also, the house in Hawaii was used for faculty and staff housing near an observatory. It was sold in 1997 for $310,000, she said.

At the California Department of Transportation, officials said some properties can be held for years before construction begins, and the agency will honor existing leases with tenants. Other times, it can take years to unload property because a project needs to be canceled officially by the transportation commission.

"Our goal is to sell them as quickly as possible," said David Anderson, a Caltrans spokesman.

Caltrans has sold $23 million worth of surplus property in the past year and a half, Anderson added.