California taxpayers are paying too much and waiting too long for the basics. Across the state, critical projects to build and modernize schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, and water systems are getting caught in years of bureaucratic delays and costly litigation.

Every year a project sits in limbo, construction costs rise, taxpayer dollars are stretched thinner and communities wait longer for the essential infrastructure they need. .  

That is why the Associated General Contractors of California supports Proposition 45, the Building an Affordable California Act. Our members build the roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, and water systems California communities depend on. We see firsthand how bureaucratic delays drive up construction costs and waste limited taxpayer dollars before a single shovel hits the ground.

Prop. 45 would establish clear, enforceable timelines for essential projects, from environmental review through the remaining approvals, and would require courts to resolve legal challenges to those projects within 270 days. By cutting unnecessary delays, Prop. 45 would help California deliver essential public infrastructure faster and more affordably while maintaining environmental review and protections.

For families, that means a new school, a safer road or a more reliable water system can open years sooner instead of sitting in limbo while costs climb.

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Let’s Look at the Delays and Inflated Costs

Consider what happened at Del Mar Heights Elementary School in San Diego County.

Local voters approved Measure MM to fund school construction and modernization, including rebuilding the 60-year-old campus. In June 2020, a group called “Save the Field” filed the first of several frivolous lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality Act, arguing the new school might reduce the size of a  playing field.

The result? Students waited four years to return to their neighborhood school, attending classes split between two other campuses, leaving families to navigate different school locations and pickup schedules. A district trustee estimated the litigation cost local taxpayers roughly $8 million in additional expenses.

That’s $8 million in taxpayer dollars that could have gone toward other educational priorities. Instead, taxpayers were left footing the bill for years of litigation and delays to a school local voters had already approved funding to rebuild.

Under Prop 45, legal challenges to essential projects like Del Mar Heights Elementary would generally have to be resolved within 270 days, including appeals, rather than dragging on for years.

And Del Mar Heights is far from an isolated case.

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More Delays and Added Costs

In El Cerrito, frivolous CEQA litigation kept Portola Middle School students in portable classrooms at a seismically unsafe campus for nearly four years and added more than $10 million in costs for local taxpayers.

In Los Angeles, the Southeast Gateway light rail line spent seven years in environmental review while its estimated cost climbed from approximately $3.75 billion to $8.6 billion. That’s billions more for a public transit project intended to improve mobility and reduce congestion.

These projects serve different communities and different purposes, but they illustrate the same problem: When California allows essential infrastructure to get tied up in years of delays and litigation, the public pays the price.

The costs are not limited to legal fees. Every additional year brings higher prices for construction materials, labor and financing. Those higher costs are ultimately passed on to taxpayers and ratepayers through higher utility bills, greater pressure on local budgets and fewer infrastructure improvements for the same public investment. At a time when California families are already struggling with the high cost of living, we cannot afford to make essential infrastructure more expensive than it needs to be.

Prop. 45 Would Save $386 Million Annually for Public Agencies

The scale of the problem is enormous. In 2025, 76% of qualifying nonresidential projects were public works, including taxpayer-funded roads, water systems, and schools. Expert economic analysis estimates that Proposition 45 would save public agencies $386 million every year on transportation, water, and school projects by reducing costly approval delays. That’s nearly $4 billion in potential taxpayer savings over the next decade — money that could be reinvested in modernizing schools, repairing roads and improving water infrastructure rather than being swallowed up by costly delays. For taxpayers already stretched thin by California’s high cost of living, making public dollars go further matters.

Prop. 45 would bring greater certainty and accountability to California’s approval process while maintaining environmental review, public input and local authority to approve or deny projects. Our state has enormous infrastructure needs and limited taxpayer resources. We can protect the environment without allowing essential projects to languish in bureaucratic limbo for years.

California taxpayers deserve better. With families already struggling to afford life in California, we cannot continue paying more and waiting longer for the basics. Proposition 45 would help build essential infrastructure faster and more affordably, reduce costly delays, and make taxpayer dollars go further.

About the Author

Peter Tateishi has served since 2018 as CEO of the Associated General Contractors of California, which has represented the state’s construction industry since 1920.