SACRAMENTO, CA) – Today, SaveOur Capitol! ,issued the following statement in response to comments made by the Chair of the Joint Committee on Rules, Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, in an interview with KCRA 3 News on October 10, 2025:

“Chair Pacheco’s claim that litigation is to blame for the Capitol Annex Project’s escalating costs is false and misleading. The courts repeatedly found that the Project’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) was legally deficient.

“The Third District Court of Appeal made it clear in 2022: the Capitol does not belong to the Executive branch or the Legislature. It belongs to the people of California. Egregiously, the people of California, the taxpayers, are being forced to pay billions for the Capitol Annex Project without being told the total cost or when the spending will end.

“Additionally, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ office echoed Chair Pacheco’s claims that lawmakers' failure to provide long-promised updates on project costs is due to the financial impacts of litigation. That is absurd on its face: the litigation ended more than a year ago, and the cost to the state to defend this ill-conceived project in court could not have been more than a rounding error compared to the project’s overall price tag. It's clear that he and the other lawmakers responsible for the project hope to hide the true cost of this massive, self-serving edifice from the taxpayers footing the bill — at least until it's finished and becomes a fait accompli.

“The Legislature has mismanaged the project from the start—to its own benefit—approving expensive and unnecessary design and materials and leveraging non-disclosure agreements to conceal decisions that would have outraged the public had the full costs been disclosed at the time. Californians deserve transparency, not a narrative that shifts blame onto the courts for the Legislature’s own failures.”