The demolition of part of the East Wing of the White House and construction of something of a frivolity, a new, glistering Ball Room to set diplomats’ hearts aflutter is perhaps conducted, even still in the midst of a government shutdown, through veiled appropriations, whereby the taxpayer is whirled about in a stately quadrille – a dance whereby one’s partner is switched throughout, rather like the American square-dance. This has excited vigorous criticism throughout the country, but incidentally has impelled Californians to examine a marked parallel marring their state capitol. This is in the form of the new Annex building, which is projected to cost a whopping 1.1 billion dollars, to be incurred by the taxpayer, of course. 

The purpose of the project was the replacement of the decrepit, decaying, and defunct Annex, for the furnishing of offices for the governor, lieutenant, and legislators, as well as discussion rooms. As proclaimed in the state-sponsored website, the eye-sore was plagued with “materials meant to last only 50 years,” an “electric and mechanical system [that] can no longer support modern demands [a primary demand seemingly is charging-stations for electric vehicles],” ADA non-compliance of points of entrance and exit, and a “design [which] poses risks related to emergency evacuation, fire safety, and security,” per the state-dictated, dedicated website to the project. Coupled to that construction was a Visitors’ Center and a parking garage.

Said Visitors’ Center was a foundering point of the project, as it was planned to be built before and beneath the famous and much-loved West Steps, thereby obstructing what was a straight path through the Capitol Mall, this path serving as the venue of many a protest. This was a point of dispute amongst the opponents of this bout of construction, and in such a capacity was the subject of a lawsuit filed by former chairmen of the government-appointed Historic Capitol Commission, Richard Cowan. The ensuing delay cost the government, and in turn the taxpayer, millions of dollars. It also likely contributed to that element’s postponement or divestment; in April, the chief-administrative officer of the Joint Committee of Rules, by which the project is conducted, per a solicitation of KCRA 3’s reporting in April, by Ashley Zavala, stated that, “At this time, our priority is to complete the Annex. There is no discussion or construction occurring on the West side.” Conversely, a bill was passed which allows the government to ignore the California Environmental Quality Act, obviating the need to declare to the people their exact intentions regarding the Visitors’ Center, and the Center remains a prominent feature of the official website, propagating the prudence of the plan. Cowan, as annunciated in a CalMatters article published in September, views the denial of “discussion and construction” as quite dubious, calls on the legislature to pass a law proscribing the interference with the West Steps as a public venue, and reckons such a disavowal, and the resulting inaction, would save the government $100 million.

Another contentious element of the construction is the creation of “security hallways” for legislators, who were previously obliged to walk through an area of accessibility on their way to the discussion rooms; the new hallways would be closed to the public. This is planned to militate against safety concerns, particularly arising from the January 6th auto-coup. Representative Hoover of Folsom, again per KCRA 3, has castigated this as “the height of hypocrisy. You are using taxpayer dollars for a taxpayer-funded facility, and yet you are going to design it in a way that shields you from the public and shields you from accountability.”

Such shying from the public eye is presaged in the secretive manner in which the project has proceeded. More than 2,000 persons have been compelled to sign non-disclosure agreements, and members of the Joint Committee have become notoriously cagey, even with their fellow legislators. Hoover himself is kept in the dark: “What frustrates me is, as a lawmaker that is potentially going to be in this building one day, we have almost zero information about what’s going on there, and I think we deserve that information, and so do our taxpayers and constituents.” Cowan has likewise excoriated the shroud of secrecy and called for an audit.

The Annex building is projected to reach completion midway through 2027. $700 million have already been allocated; the appropriations in the coming years run as follows: $250 million this year, $150 million in the next. The taxpayer may look forward to this extra allowance of civic duty.