Leave it to Governor Schwarzenegger to stir the pot when it comes to the Legislature, the budget, and his ability to take his ideas directly to the ballot.

In a speech this afternoon to the Sacramento Press Club, the governor said that he hopes to begin gathering signatures on the proposed initiatives that mirror his legislative proposals to reform the budget process as soon as March. As mentioned here last week, those initiatives have been submitted by well-known supporters of the governor.

It was, in essence, a warning to the Democratically controlled Legislature that he would not wait. And he reaffirmed his interest in a special election sometime this year.

Schwarzenegger criticized the pace of business in the Legislature since the special session on budget reforms began some three weeks ago.

“All we hear these last three weeks is a lot of excuses, a lot of complaints, and a lot of finger pointing,” he said.

And the governor went further. He said that if the Legislature will not work with him, he will go to the people. “And it will be the governor with his partners, the people of California, against the legislators” he said. “We will be against the politics as usual.”

A few other items of note from Schwarzenegger’s lunchtime speech, at which the Sacramento Press Club auctioned off 3 coffee mugs that he autographed, with proceeds going to journalism scholarships (total raised: some $450):

* On reports that a special election could cost some $50 million: it’s an investment, he said. “This could make the difference, between having a state that’s always, almost going into bankruptcy, or a state that is financially healthy.”

* On the redesign of the Bay Bridge, and whether he’d consider alternate ideas that would be cheaper and faster: “If someone can convince me that they have a better idea to solve this problem than what we are trying to do right now, I’m more than happy to listen to it.”

* On his definition of special interests, the governor indicated it’s less about who they are, than what they get for their money. “People know”, he said, “whoever is paying for the campaigns, the initiatives, no one comes to me and asks me for favors.”