Read the receipts.
On California's most expensive agencies.

On June 4, 2025 the Federal Railroad Administration formally notified CHSRA it was moving to terminate two cooperative agreements totaling roughly $4 billion, citing the Authority's own Inspector General. Six days later, the OIG-HSR sent a clarification letter to the Governor and Legislature — confirming both the termination threat and a $7B Central Valley gap being cited against it.

In October 2024 the OIG estimated a ~$6.5B gap on the 171-mile initial operating segment against a $35.3B high-end cost with only $28.8B committed. The Authority needs $3.7B for the Merced extension, $1.4B for a second track, and $1.4B for the Bakersfield extension — 'by FY2025-26' — to stay on schedule. The OIG concluded federal grants will 'not likely' close it.

In the 2023 Project Update Report the Authority committed to revenue service by 2030, with 2033 as an outer envelope. Ten months later an OIG review found the target had already slipped to 2031 and concluded that staying inside 2033 'is unlikely.' The Authority then missed its own self-imposed December 2024 trainset-award deadline — a contract it had told the board was critical to the schedule.

Construction Package 1 was awarded to Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons in 2013 for $985,142,530. By 2018 the program budget for CP1 was $1.94B. In March 2023 the board approved another $845M ($453M cost + $392M contingency) for CP1 alone. The Audit Office's own July 2025 review found contractors routinely propose change orders roughly 23% larger than what ultimately gets executed — the initial ask is inflated by design.

A June 2024 CEO report documents Change Order 405 on CP2-3 adding $143,126,822 'to satisfy the arbitration ruling' on the Cross Creek Viaduct and wildlife crossings. In November 2022 the Finance & Audit Committee was told Dragados had five items simultaneously in arbitration representing $130M in disputed invoices. These ruling-driven costs do not show up as 'overruns' in the headline number.

The Authority's own Audit Office tested 18 of 218 active contracts against internal procedures and could not locate 150 of 630 required documents — a 24% miss rate across an $835M sample of a $7.1B contract portfolio. This was a follow-up to a November 2018 California State Auditor finding. Four years later the compliance rate was still 76%.

The district's PeopleSoft payroll rollout produced sustained paycheck errors for teachers and staff. Board and committee meetings contain the vendor status updates, change orders, and remediation plans issued in response.

Multi-year structural deficits triggered county and state fiscal oversight. Budget study sessions and monitoring workshops lay out the gap, the assumptions, and the reductions proposed — along with which ones the board adopted, deferred, or rejected.

Enrollment has declined for more than a decade; staffing and site counts have not moved in step. Budget and Business Services committee packets contain the year-over-year breakdowns that explain where the money actually goes.

Facilities bond dollars fund construction, modernization, and technology. Buildings, Grounds and Services Committee packets document the project list, schedule, and dollars spent to date — including which projects are ahead of or behind plan.

The Resource Alignment Initiative — including potential school closures and consolidations — went through proposal, workshop, and political reversal. The documents trace every version, every assumption, and every public comment.