Democrats in the Legislature have some serious budget business to do, but that hasn't kept all of them away from the convention in Denver. Assembly members Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Lori Saldana (D-San Diego) joined the California delegation for breakfast this morning. Speaker Emeritus Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) was sighted. I feel obligated to chide, because what right do they have to enjoy themselves and kibbitz with the state two months into the fiscal year without a budget? Even state party Chairman Art Torres, a former assemblyman and state senator, poked some fun. "I thought they had a budget to take care of" he told the delegation from the podium at their morning get-together.

Fact is, though, they can't do much to help things move along. Their house convenes again Wednesday and they are expected to be back in Sacramento.

Speaker Karen Bass hasn't made the trip. Yet. She was officially the hostess of a California delegation party last night, but it went on without her.

Plenty of people in the hall unhappy about the budget mess, though. You hear it a lot here: "They're gonna do a get-out-of-town budget" -- code for a lousy deal that relies on borrowing from city, county, transportation and education funds, except that "borrowing" implies the lender had a choice in the matter.

"Something's got to change in California about the way we decide a budget," said California teachers Association President David Sanchez. "We have districts starting a school year without a state budget, and they don't know what to expect."

The solutions sound much easier in Denver, where this week, everyone's a Democrat. Sanchez said the answer is in the "conference committee plan," which is another way of saying the Democrats' plan for higher income taxes. Good luck with that one back in Sacramento, where the Republican minority is holding the line on no tax increases, but also won't introduce a budget plan of its own.