California's legislative Republican leaders are backtracking on plans to attend a two-day, lobster-and-golf campaign fundraiser in Nevada early next week, as the state's record-setting budget impasse continues.

Assembly Republican leader Mike Villines and Senate Republican leader Dave Cogdill are listed as the co-hosts of the "Republican Leadership Invitational" early next week, a Nevada golf tournament where big donors will be asked to fork over up to $15,000 to the California Republican Party.

But after Democrats raised questions about the event, spokesmen for both leaders said they won't go.

Though the budget is nearly three months past the June 15 constitutional deadline, lawmakers of both parties and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have continued to pound the fundraising circuit. In August - when legislators decided the fate of hundreds of bills - there were more than 80 fundraisers for sitting legislators, most with a minimum of $1,000 to attend.

But the timing of the GOP event - as some health care clinics are threatening to shutter their doors and public schools are being shorted billions of dollars because of the missing budget - drew outrage from across of the aisle.

"It just shows for the umpteenth time now just how out of touch the Republican leaders are from the real life implications of the stalemate," said Brian Brokaw, a spokesman for the California Democratic Party.

State Controller John Chiang has estimated that the state won't be able to make $7.6 billion in payments to schools, health care providers, state vendors and others in September without passage of a spending plan.

Hector Barajas, the communications director for the Republican Party, where the proceeds of the Lake Tahoe event will go, said, "The event is still going on."

When first questioned about the event by The Bee, Cogdill spokeswoman Eileen Ricker, said: "We don't know what his schedule is tomorrow, let alone on Monday because everything is contingent upon the budget."

But she called back later to say the senator "has no plans of going and playing golf. He will be here working on the budget."

A spokesman for Villines said his "priority is negotiating the budget and if there is no budget agreement then he will not be attending."

Barajas said rank-and-file GOP lawmakers have also been invited.

The luxury fundraiser on the Nevada shores of Lake Tahoe is one of the last big-money events for the California Republican Party before the Nov. 4 election. The party has another big-ticket golf fundraiser in Indian Wells in October.

To woo potential contributors, the party and its top two GOP lawmakers had promised donors a "sunset cocktail reception" and lobster BBQ on Monday night, followed by Tuesday golf on a course where an 18-hole round regularly costs $174.

"You'll experience an incomparable mountain escape," entices the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Web site, where donors and lawmakers will sleep.

Lawmakers and Schwarzenegger still have not agreed on a state budget, though it is a record 74 days into the fiscal year without a spending plan. The state faces a $15.2 billion deficit, which Democrats and the governor hope to close, in part, through tax increases.

Republicans, whose votes are needed to reach the two-thirds threshold necessary for a budget, have vowed to block any tax hikes.

While Republicans are scheduled to be wining and dining in Nevada, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, on Monday is set to headline a fundraiser in San Francisco for that city's Democratic assemblywoman, Fiona Ma.

Cogdill has another fundraiser scheduled in Fresno Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he has an event in Modesto. Villines, meanwhile, is listed as a sponsor of a downtown Sacramento fundraiser for GOP Assembly candidate Gary Jeandron on Tuesday.

Schwarzenegger blasted lawmakers earlier this month for not working hard enough on the budget.

"There are absolutely no consequences to legislators," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference in Placerville. "Absolutely none. They go on vacation, they go on recess, they go home on the weekends and have their two days off - because God forbid they have to work through the weekend."

Schwarzenegger, too, is out raising money. He squeezed three fundraising events into his schedule the week before criticizing lawmakers.