{"id":352175,"date":"2026-06-08T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352175\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T21:59:09","slug":"fresno-explores-lawsuit-as-high-speed-rail-eyes-local-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/352175\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno Explores Lawsuit As High-Speed Rail Eyes Local Taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only days after the High-Speed Rail Authority board approved a business plan that eyes local tax dollars to help fund the project, the city of Fresno authorized its attorney to take steps to sue\u2014 if necessary.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, June 4, Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz announced out of closed session that in a 4-0 vote, he\u2019d been given the authority to \u201cpursue all legal avenues\u201d against the state of California and High-Speed Rail if any state agency claimed rights to local tax money.<\/p>\n

Fresno City Council President Nelson Esparza told GV Wire that if the state did so, it would violate the California Constitution.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate the creativity in trying to find different funding mechanisms,\u201d Esparza said. \u201cBut talking about doing a tax-increment financing mechanism and effectively trading off what would have been funding for local coffers is going to be devastating to our city finances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An Idea for Future Discussion,\u2019 Says HSRA\u2019s Perea<\/p>\n

Authority boardmembers, however, said during a June 1 meeting that the agency would collaborate with cities and counties on tax financing.<\/p>\n

Authority board member Henry R. Perea, a Fresno resident and former county supervisor, said the agency\u2019s lack of communication created mistrust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no activity, zero activity other than that it was an idea for future discussion with cities,\u201d Perea said.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Annalisa Perea, who is the daughter of Henry R. Perea, abstained from the vote. Councilmembers Mike Karbassi and Tyler Maxwell were absent.<\/p>\n

The move comes after organizations such as the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties opposed the authority from potentially laying claim to local taxes that would otherwise go to police, fire, and other uses.<\/p>\n

If HSR Drives Growth, Should it Have Access to Tax Dollars?<\/p>\n

Special tax districts use revenue to fund areas or projects. For example, downtown Fresno\u2019s tax district<\/a> collected more $1 million in fiscal year 2025 to help fund development in the area.<\/p>\n

The HSRA sees potential in accessing those revenues.<\/p>\n

Its latest business plan outlines a $86.8 billion shortfall to finish the project from San Francisco to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

On June 1, the authority board approved its 2026 Business Plan. It details a strategy called \u201cvalue capture\u201d to help fund the rail project.<\/p>\n

In a statement to GV Wire, an authority spokesperson said they are continuing conversations with jurisdictions and stakeholders about potential tools to support station infrastructure. Discussions surround whether the authority would have access to local tax revenue as high-speed rail drives growth, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cValue capture is only one of many concepts being discussed, and the authority\u00a0 is not proposing any policy \u2014 particularly not one that would override local land-use or tax authority,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Newly appointed board member Jason Elliott, in the authority\u2019s June 1 meeting, asked whether project available capital assumes having tax increment financing available. The answer from the authority was \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a real fear and expectation of the worst among our local partners about this,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m glad to have the clarity that we\u2019re not anticipating or taking for granted tax increment financing revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n

California Cities, Counties Oppose HSR Tax Plan<\/p>\n

A draft version of the business plan circulating earlier this year called for more direct control of local tax dollars through tax increment financing, according to a report from the California State Association of Counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal to divert local tax increment to a state entity appears inconsistent with multiple provisions of the California Constitution,\u201d a letter<\/a> to HSR CEO Ian Choudri from the association stated. \u201cLocal sales tax revenues are expressly protected for local governmental purposes, and the legislature is prohibited from reallocating or transferring those revenues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The League of California Cities, Urban Counties, the California Special Districts Association, and the Rural County Representatives of California all signed onto the letter.<\/p>\n

HSR Isn\u2019t Communicating Well: Caballero<\/p>\n

State Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, and Henry R. Perea said at the June 1 meeting that the authority has not been communicative with cities and counties, especially when it comes to tax-increment financing.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the discussion of taking local tax revenue, during a year when we started off in January looking like we were going to have to make some fairly significant cuts to the budget, had everybody a little paranoid,\u201d said Caballero, an ex-officio board member.<\/p>\n

Caballero also said that the city of Merced wasn\u2019t included in a decision to move the planned HSR station there outside the urban core.<\/p>\n

She said small businesses located near the tracks benefit from ridership.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving it outside of the city limits on the opposite side of the tracks and the freeway, that becomes a real issue,\u201d Caballero said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only days after the High-Speed Rail Authority board approved a business plan that eyes local tax dollars to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-352175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}