My friends left last week, but it wasn't until Saturday that I caught a glimpse of Lake Tahoe like I'd never seen it before -- from 30,000 feet above the ground. I was flying back to school in New York myself and, sure, I've flown plenty of times before and have seen a shadowed view of the great lake in the past, but the view of the lake that day was something I won't soon forget. The sun was just over the horizon and shining gloriously in the deep blue sky; there was not a cloud in sight. I saw the entirety of the lake and the surrounding snow-capped mountains with a clarity I'd never before experienced.

I scrambled for my camera and managed to snap a couple shots of the vast lake below, but I'm sure the prints will do no justice to the natural beauty I witnessed with my own eyes that day.

Take a minute this week to stop and enjoy the beauty of our world -- and don't take it for granted.

-Gabe

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Despite the overheated rhetoric of the campaign, the bottom line on Democrat Davis' first budget is that it breaks little new ground. Indeed, in spending for public education, the budget provides scant more than the legal minimum required by voter-approved Proposition 98. Likewise, all the major categories in the budget -- welfare, prisons and the environment, for example -- get a little more than before, but not enough to really make a dramatic impact. One might well ask: So what's the difference between the Republican Wilson and the Democratic Davis?

Thus far, not much.

There are two reasons for this.

First, California's robust economy is still growing but at a slower rate than before. That means that tax revenues are coming in at a lower-than expected rate. Precisely how much tax money will be available won't be known until May -- the month after taxpayers' annual deadline -- but the likelihood is that revenue growth will be lackluster. Less tax revenue means less money to spend.

Second, nobody knows how the economy will perform this year and next, so to be safe, the governor is cautious about spending. That's wise, although some key interest groups -- state workers, for example -- are disappointed that the governor didn't propose more than a 2 percent raise for them, their first increase in four years.

Although the governor's January budget draft receives widespread media coverage, the document really is a shell. It is merely a projection of what the governor would like to do, a statement of his political priorities, but its foundation is very fragile because of economic uncertainties.

The real budget, which gets far less attention, is crafted after mid-May. That's when the latest revenue figures are known and the governor's Finance Department announces its "May Revise," the document that makes changes in the original budget draft. It is the May Revise that forms the true basis of California's budget.

Like Pete Wilson before him, Gray Davis is hamstrung by a fiscal shortage. The Davis shortfall, about $2.3 billion in a $77.5 billion spending plan, is far less than Wilson confronted, but the reasons are similar -- excessive spending by an earlier administration and an economic tightening.

As expectations grew among Democrats for the first Democratic governor's budget in 16 years, there was a feeling that Davis would propose major new spending. But he did not: His budget is a no-frills, utilitarian, something-for-everybody approach that didn't really excite anybody and didn't really anger anyone, either.

Dull is in -- for now, anyway.

Looking for the current roster of the Assembly or Senate? Head on over to http://www.capenq.com/gov/info.html for links to the current lists -- complete with district, member name, party, room and phone number.

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