When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.

After nine years at The Bee, this is my final column as a regular feature on this page. But while I will be leaving the paper's payroll, I hope to be a frequent contributor to the ongoing discussion here about politics and public policy in this troubled state.

You'd think that Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, would be pleased that his party controls the White House, giving him better access to the executive branch than he had when George W. Bush was president. But Costa seems frustrated that he can't get the ear of the president at a time when his congressional district is suffering as much as any region in the country.