SACRAMENTO, California (AFP) -- A group of California legislators on Monday slammed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's claims at his inauguration that the "Golden State" was in a dark financial abyss.

Democratic lawmakers claimed that the former actor and his wife, Maria Shriver, had over-dramatized the parlous state of California's finances at his low-key swearing in the state capital Sacramento earlier in the day.

"He made it sound like we are at the brink of a disaster. That's just not true," said Senior Democrat assembly member Jenny Oropeza of the new Republican leader's remarks.

And a top legislative aide dismissed the governor's characterization "offensive" to both the state and to hard-working government officials.

In his inauguration speech the Hollywood star-turned governor suggested the state was in "staggering" condition and "spiraling downward" with deep divisions. "We have the worst business climate in the nation," he said. His remarks followed a speech by his wife Maria Shriver, who recited a poem by U.S. writer Maya Angelou which spoke of an "atmosphere of gloom and despair."

"We awaken on a low plain ... of defeat" and in "a general climate of hopelessness," Shriver, a member of the democratic Kennedy clan, read.

But several state officials said neither Schwarzenegger nor the new first lady said anything about California's positive attributes.

"He didn't mention our great environment, our technology, our great universities and infrastructure," complained one. "I must say that it was a broad overstatement to characterize the state in the terms that he did," said Oropeza. "I don't feel like we are in an abyss."