We analyze a new kinematic survey that includes accurate proper motions derived from SDSS DR7 positions, combined with multi-epoch measurements from the GSC-II database. By means of the SDSS spectro-photometric data (effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity, and radial velocities), we estimate photometric parallaxes for a sample of 27 000 FGK (sub)dwarfs with Fe/H < -0.5, which we adopted as tracers of the seven-dimensional space distribution (kinematic phase distribution plus chemical abundance) of the thick disk and inner halo within a few kiloparsecs of the Sun.
We find evidence of a kinematics-metallicity correlation, $\partial \langle V_\phi \rangle/ \partial {\rm Fe/H}\approx 40\div 50$ km s-1 dex-1, amongst thick disk stars located between one and three kiloparsecs from the plane and with abundance -1 < Fe/H < -0.5, while no significant correlation is present for Fe/H $\ga$ -0.5. In addition, we estimate a shallow vertical rotation velocity gradient, $\partial \langle V_\phi \rangle/ \partial \left| z\right| = -19 \pm 2$ km s-1 kpc-1, for the thick disk between 1 kpc < |z| < 3 kpc, and a low prograde rotation, 37 ± 3 km s-1 for the inner halo up to 4 kpc. 
Finally, we briefly discuss the implications of these findings for the thick disk formation scenarios in the context of CDM hierarchical galaxy formation mechanisms and of secular evolutionary processes in galactic disks.