California state lawmakers are preparing to demolish and reconstruct part of the state’s historic Capitol grounds to add more office spaces, costing somewhere between $775 million to $1.2 billion, according to critics. Since the Capitol Annex Project was approved without the Historic State Capitol Commission or comments from the public and surrounding native communities, stakeholders and small business owners are calling for transparency from the state legislature about the fundings’ source and how exactly it will be spent. “Mr. Cooley has introduced a budget change proposal to add another $94 million to that, which is a heck of a cost overrun for a project that isn’t even starting its official design,” Dick Cowan, former historic preservation officer of the Historic State Capitol Commission, told The Epoch Times. “That building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and we think that means certain studies have to be done before you can …