Gov. Lays Out Agenda of Concrete, Steel

Los Angeles Times ^ | January 6, 2006 | Robert Salladay

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday launched a super-sized plan to rebuild the very foundations of California — a $222-billion construction project to fortify freeways, schools, jails, ports and waterways.

Schwarzenegger used his annual State of the State speech to outline a decade-long blueprint for reshaping California to its core. If successful, he would be author of the state's largest public building program since the 1960s, when former Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown helped California absorb millions of new residents during a postwar boom.

In the 23-minute address to lawmakers, which was as much about rebuilding his own image as it was about repairing California, Schwarzenegger paid homage to past governors who "built the foundations of California's prosperity."

"They built California with steel, concrete, hard work and vision," he told legislators gathered in the Assembly chamber. "We must do all that and more."

Schwarzenegger's plan would provide money for hundreds of miles of new highways, carpool lanes and commuter rail lines, hundreds of new schools, two new prisons and a new crime lab. He would shore up the state's leaky levees and upgrade other flood-control systems.

The governor's aides said earlier Thursday that he wants a series of public bond issues, starting with $25 billion this year, placed before voters in five elections through the year 2014. In total, $68 billion in new government debt would be incurred to pay for the building program.

Schwarzenegger is counting on the willingness of the federal government to chip in tens of billions of dollars. His plan also would draw from gasoline taxes, school and county budgets, new tolls and fees on businesses and commuters, and partnerships with private businesses to meet the $222-billion price tag.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[Ben Mugged]

Sorry Arnold, my vote is not for sale. Show me some gun rights legislation, anti homosexual marriage or border control legislation if you want my vote.

[samadams2000]

Wie haben die Socialism in der place..

[b9]

Your screen name matches the above graphic. ":^)

[Ben Mugged]

Yep, that's me all right.

[Amerigomag]

His plan also would draw from gasoline taxes, property taxes, new tolls and fees on businesses and commuters and allow private companies to charge Californians for the use of improvements done on public land (bridges, toll roads, marinas).

Ain't it grand. Everyone gets rich at the public expense. Very rich at a very large public expense. Pass the Wiener Schnitzel.

[b9]

Now the graphic is Saddam...
'Didn't mean THAT one hope y'know....
What happened to the sunny FR mug?

[JesseJane]

Smells just like the TTC to me.

Hmm.. whatdya bet a foreign country bids to build and have control of contractors, sub contractors, and who shall be employed to work. Another arm to the Central American octopus and the illegal alien highway. Viva Boosh!

[brainstem223]

Hey swartcheneger, California is a hellhole, and with all hellholes its best to let nature take its course. New Orleans was an example of this. Not one cent for your filthy state.

[Holden Magroin]

Schwarzenegger is a total sell-out. He has bargained with the DemocRATs to support their agenda if they promise not to attack him. He has collaborated with the ethnic chauvinists in the legislature to make white men slaves to the growing illegal alien population.