Summer study.

The three months since the General Assembly adjourned on April 9 have given that term new meaning.

Our deliberations on gambling seem endless.

In fact, one of the arguments for holding a special session in August is to put the matter behind us, freeing up the 2013 legislature’s time, focus, and horsetrading.

Summer study often means that a bill’s demise has been postponed until a between-session work group has made meaningless recommendations that won’t see the light of implementation.

But not always.

When I introduced House Bill 991 this past session, it created a work group to study how to assist seniors aging in place, in the homes that they own. The bill passed without amendments. Its report is due by the end of this year.

At yesterday’s first meeting, I made the point that the group could recommend to the Governor that he put money in the budget to implement our recommendations.

“Funding next year won’t solve the problem for the long term,” responded one of the citizen members of the group.

I decided to save my “the budget bill is the policy document of the State” response for this fall.