Previewing Ahnuld's State of the State

Dan Weintraub has a useful article in Sunday's Sacramento Bee describing his 5th annual Quality-of-Life Index or "stats of the state" to interested readers. Governor Schwarzenegger's State of the State address is today. The Governor's office has leaked that he will:

• support a $1 increase in the minimum wage as long as it is not tied to an automatic cost-of-living increase every year
• propose a $4 billion increase for public education, about $1.7 billion more than the minimum Prop. 98 guarantee (though still not completely making up for reneging on his deal with his 2004 deal with the CTA)
• call for a massive 25-30 billion dollar bond to improve the state's infrastructure (levees, roads, bridges, modernize schools, emergency preparedness)
• repeal the previously announced fee increase at the UC and CSU
• call for a trucks only lane on the 710 freeway
• call for a change to the legislative redistricting process

Clearly, Ahnuld is scurrying to the left prior to his re-election date with the voters on November 7. But, to my mind, most of these things he is calling for he is doing so to forestall even more liberal legislation by the Democratic majority in the Legislature. For example, not having a cost-of-living increase with the minimum wage proposal is just cruel. California's minimum wage is currently $6.75 per hour. In August, Ahnuld vetoed a bill by Assemblymember Lieber which would have raised the minimum wage by $1 over two years (and index it for inflation).