Sacramento -- California lawmakers, facing a weekend constitutional deadline to fix the state's budget mess, reached agreement Thursday on one way to respond to the crisis.

They went home.

"As far as I'm concerned, I could spend the next two weeks

in the Bahamas for all the progress we're making," said Assemblyman Paul Kortez, D-West Hollywood, moments before he -- like a dozen other lawmakers -- boarded a plane Thursday afternoon at Sacramento International Airport.

In an anticlimactic finish to what was supposed to be an intense week of negotiations, dozens of legislators shrugged their shoulders, admitted defeat and scattered across the state by air and car.

After a week in which fund raising seemed just as pressing a matter as budget talks, a deal to close a whopping $38 billion deficit -- a problem that will likely touch every school, hospital and police department in California --

was nowhere in sight.

And by Thursday afternoon, also out of sight were the people who are supposed to solve the problem.

Assemblyman John Campbell, R-Irvine, one of the GOP's top budget negotiators, flew south, where he said he planned to have dinner in Los Angeles with his 90-year-old father on Sunday evening for Father's Day.

Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, spent part of Thursday holding a press conference in his hometown with actress Julia Louis- Dreyfus of "Seinfeld" fame. Burton, the actress, and state Treasurer Phil Angelides were promoting a plan to reduce the number of gas guzzling SUVs in the state's fleet of automobiles.

DAVIS AT WIFE'S BOOK READING
Both Gov. Gray Davis and his budget guru, Director of Finance Steve Peace, headed to Southern California. Davis plans to join his wife, Sharon, in a reading today of her new children's book, "The Adventures of Capitol Kitty," at an elementary school in Venice (Los Angeles County).

It was a fitting end to a week that illustrated how far lawmakers have to go before they reach a consensus.

On Tuesday, a frustrated Burton shouted and abruptly left a budget meeting with other top lawmakers and Davis after just 15 minutes. Burton later suggested that praying might be the only way to come to an agreement. It was the only high-level meeting on the budget all week.

Then on Thursday morning, the state Assembly broke into a partisan skirmish over Father's Day.

Republicans objected to a resolution sponsored by Democrats that honored "single fathers, foster fathers, adoptive fathers, biological fathers, stepfathers, families headed by two fathers, grandfathers raising grandchildren, fathers in blended households and other nontraditional fathers."

"We leave out the way it all began, the way the good Lord intended," said Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa (San Diego County). "We cannot even recognize fathers of traditional families."

The resolution passed with the minimum number of votes needed.

BUDGET DEADLINE RARELY MET
The Legislature is supposed to hand over a budget to the governor each year by June 15. Lawmakers rarely do that -- they've only made the deadline four times in the past 25 years. But this year, with a unprecedented deficit that got budget talks started much earlier than normal, many thought a deal would be in place by now.

Democrats and Republicans are still stuck on taxes. Republicans have pledged not to support Democratic proposals to raise the sales tax or even taxes on things like cigarettes, and the Senate's top Republican, Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County), has promised to work against any GOP lawmakers who support tax increases in future elections.

Democrats need two Republicans in the Senate and six in the Assembly to meet the two-thirds vote required to approve a budget.

As both Democrats and Republicans filed into the airport, lawmakers downplayed Sunday's deadline. They noted the new fiscal year does not begin until July 1, giving them a few more weeks before state government begins to shut down.

"There's a deadline and then there's a deadline. The deadline is June 30," said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, as she stood outside the airport Thursday.

Others who were leaving town noted most of the budget talks rested in the hands of legislative leadership. The so-called Big Five -- the governor and the leaders of each party in both houses of the Legislature -- have taken a lead role in settling the budget this year. They've met more than 20 times in the past few months.

"The reality of the situation is that the Big Five have control of the process," said Assemblywoman Shirley Horton, R-Chula Vista (San Diego County), as she prepared to fly home.

TIME FOR FUND RAISING
While lawmakers did not craft a budget deal this week, they did find time to make some money.

Before they left for home, no fewer than 20 lawmakers hosted four- and five- figure breakfast and cocktail galas to solicit campaign money.

The events ranged from simple to swank, from steak dinners to fund-raising breakfasts that are derisively referred to as "thousand-dollar eggs."

Just blocks from the Capitol, lobbyists and supporters paid $1,000 on Wednesday to watch Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, sing with a rock band at Virga's Courtyard as they drank wine and beer and snacked on finger sandwiches.

Others paid up to $2,000 to see a Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake concert at Arco Arena Thursday night with Assemblyman Ron Calderon, D- Montebello (Los Angeles County), in one of the more unusual fund-raisers.

Burton rented out Tommy Toy's Cuisine Chinoise in San Francisco on Wednesday to host actor Clint Eastwood. Guests paid between $5,000 to $25,000.

Burton planned on spending the weekend in San Francisco, a spokesman said, essentially giving up on meeting the Sunday deadline. Some lawmakers didn't think that was such a bad thing.

"When you're doing negotiations like this, a time out isn't a bad thing," Campbell said before disappearing up an escalator at Sacramento International Airport.

That kind of response didn't sit well with activists who are fighting to protect precious state dollars for programs.

"While we're trying to figure out where the money is going to come from for wheelchairs, they are going home and not thinking about it at all," complained Vince Wetzel, director of communications for the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, an organization of 29 community-based organizations that work with people with disabilities.