TRENTON -- State lawmakers suing Gov. Chris Christie's administration over a planned $300 million Statehouse renovation will argue in Superior Court on Wednesday the public and Legislature were deliberately and unconstitutionally excluded from the project.

The bipartisan group of state senators and an assembly member want to bar the governor from moving forward with the four-year, massive overhaul of the Statehouse's executive wing. The state argues the dispute is moot because the financing is complete.

The executive branch occupies a near block-long section of the building that faces West State Street and houses the offices of the governor, treasurer, secretary of state, their staffs and the press corps.

It's been deemed a threat to "life, health and safety," while Christie called the crumbling Statehouse with windows boarded up "shameful."

The governor's office has already been relocated to former museum and gallery space in the archives building down West State Street.

But lawmakers -- including state Sens. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), Michael Doherty (R-Warren), Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset), and Richard Codey (D-Essex), and state Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) -- want the courts to slam the brakes.

The lawsuits accuse the administration of disregarding constitutional protections for taxpayers in routing the renovation of the Statehouse executive suite and building exterior through unelected panels.

The modernization was approved by the State Capitol Joint Management Commission and financed through the Economic Development Agency.

The Joint Management Commission is leasing the Statehouse Complex to the EDA, which will sublease it back. The state will reimburse the EDA the project costs through rent payments from the state treasury.

The lawsuits allege this financing strategy is a clear circumvention of restrictions on who can and how to create debts of the state.

"The means selected by the executive branch ... for the greatly enhanced project described as a comprehensive reconstruction and renovation of the Statehouse Complex was chosen by the executive branch for the sole purpose of bypassing the Legislature and the taxpaying public," Lesniak's complaint states.

Wisniewski criticized the administration for trying to outrun potential litigation by rushing through the financing -- the funds were borrowed the same day the EDA approved the arrangement.

"The Defendants have acted surreptitiously with unclean hands, in order to circumvent the Constitution and avoid litigation," he wrote in a brief. "The bonds were sold in a private purchase that had been negotiated and set up prior to the day of approval without any public dissemination so that the sale could be conducted as quickly as possible to avoid potential litigation."

He also argued the Joint Management Commission did not have the authority to lease the Statehouse to the EDA.

Christie has said previously everything "is being done in a completely proper, legal way."

The lawmakers also sought a temporary restraining order to halt any planned work at the complex.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.