California taxpayers may be on the hook for a roughly $1 billion detour project as part of the state’s new high-speed rail construction meant to prevent disruption of a monument honoring the disgraced labor leader Cesar Chavez .

Despite tearing down and vacating memorials for Chavez, top California lawmakers did not immediately respond when asked if taxpayers in their state should still be on the hook for a roughly billion-dollar detour project meant to prevent the state’s new high-speed rail from coming near the monument nestled in the mountains. The detour, according to 2020 estimates from the California High Speed Rail Authority, would cost taxpayers close to $1 billion when accounting for inflation.

California leaders, universities and beyond immediately began stripping honors they had bestowed on the late labor leader after news of him sexually abusing and grooming minors and adults, including one girl who was as young as 13 at the time of the abuse and another who became pregnant twice following…