City of Fresno introduces tax plan to cover expected lost revenue once Measure C ends next year

The Fresno City Council will be asked at their next meeting to place a general sales tax proposal before voters on the November 2026 general election ballot to help cover a projected shortfall of tens of millions of dollars that will likely come after Measure C expires next summer, with no other replacement legislation in sight.  

City of Fresno leaders unveiled their plans at a news conference Thursday. The news conference comes after the Fresno County Board of Supervisors ordered a study of Measure C’s presumptive successor — known as Better Roads Safe Streets — at their meeting last week. The study, which was approved through a 3-2 vote split among the governing body’s ideological lines, will very likely not be completed before the deadline to place a measure on this year’s general election ballot. 

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said at the Thursday news conference that it was a decision that “effectively killed any opportunity” for the measure to be voted on this year.

County residents will likely have to wait until 2028 to vote on the Better Roads initiative. 

Unveiled as the Fresno Public Safety Infrastructure Restoration and Essential Services Act, the city is proposing to introduce a sales tax that will slide in to replace what taxpayers already pay for as a part of Measure C. City leaders stressed that this means residents will not be voting on a tax increase. 

The city’s proposal would kick in on July 1, 2027, the day after Measure C expires.

The act is being sponsored by the mayor, Fresno Council President Nelson Esparza and Councilmember Mike Karbassi. Esparza said the county board’s actions last week placed “millions of dollars in road funding from the San Joaquin River to the southern edge of Kingsburg on a collision course for extinction.”

“I would rather not be standing here,” said Esparza. “Measure C has served this county well over the decades, and I would rather have had a continuation of that, but that’s not where we find ourselves, and it’s incumbent upon us to shield Fresno families from the devastating surface impacts that await if we do nothing.”

The tax proposal will come before the Fresno City Council at the eleventh hour, as next Thursday is their last meeting scheduled before next month’s deadline to place a measure on the November ballot. 

If approved by the council next week, the proposed measure will go on the ballot as a general tax, meaning the city will have the ultimate discretion on how to use the revenue generated by the measure.

The general tax label marks a departure from Measure C, which was a piece of legislation specifically designed to generate money for the county’s transportation-related projects and expenses. 

City leaders shared that there are some guardrails in place to track where that money goes, like an annual independent audit of the funding and the possibility of an oversight committee. However, none of that money will be committed toward a specific cause.

Esparza said placing the measure as a general tax was the easiest way to get a stop-gap funding measure on the ballot. Years of failed Measure C renewal negotiations did not inspire confidence that the city could cobble up a specific tax, especially with only a few days of runway following last week’s board of supervisors meeting.

“We’ve … seen conflict and the inability for the entire community to come together around a measure on a specific tax,” Esparza said, “and where we were left with was a very very short time period – I’m talking a week or 10 days — to figure out what can we do here at the City of Fresno to salvage the fiscal situation that we face next July.”

The tax plan, if approved, can expire one of two ways, city leaders shared: as soon as a countywide transportation tax plan is implemented, or it can naturally sunset in 10 years.

It’s difficult to predict which of these two conditions gets triggered first.

Among the many propositions on the ballot this November is Prop. 43. That proposition, if approved, would make a two-thirds majority vote the new standard threshold to approve the introduction, increase, or renewal of all tax measures in the state. 

That would make future attempts to introduce a countywide Measure C replacement incredibly difficult to get approved. The most recent attempt to pass a Measure C renewal on the 2022 ballot only generated 58% voter approval.

Thursday’s news conference leaves Fresno’s councilmembers with a relatively short period of time to consider how they’ll vote next week. They’ll also likely have to consider ongoing election campaigns, and constituents’ concerns — all factors that could weigh heavier on their minds heading into the November midterm elections.

They’ll also have to consider that the tax, if it does stretch the full 10 years, will be active long after the current councilmembers and mayor leave office. 

But city leaders on Thursday stressed that the most important factor to consider is what could happen if this tax proposal doesn’t get approved. 

With no replacement, Measure C’s expiration would result in a loss of $54 million annually and a potential loss of 217 jobs, Dyer said. Those effects would mostly be felt in the city’s public works, capital projects, transportation and airport departments. 

“I echo the mayor’s call to encourage my colleagues to make the tough vote and do what’s right,” said Karbassi, “because it is a no-brainer for us to continue to provide the services that our public expects, and to protect the city employees that provide those essential services. I sure as heck won’t sit idly by and have my residents and their vehicles suffer because we didn’t think ahead.”

Fresnoland reached out to Fresno City Councilmembers to better understand the likelihood of this tax plan getting approved at next week’s council meeting. 

“All news to me,” said councilmember Nick Richardson of the tax plan, perhaps signaling just how hurried City Hall has been in trying to get the measure before the council during their meeting next week.

The tax proposal, if approved by Fresno’s City Council and its voters, would cover Fresno if Measure C expires next year with no replacement. 

The City of Clovis and the county’s rural and unincorporated communities are a different story. 

Taylor Danielson, spokesperson for Clovis, told Fresnoland through a statement on Thursday that the city stands to lose about $6.34 million annually if Measure C expires with no replacement in place. Among the affected departments could be Clovis Transit and the city’s planning and development team. 

Amy Hance, director of the City of Clovis’ general services department, told Fresnoland last week that the city is assessing “all available options” to address anticipated budget issues. She added that no decisions have been made yet that would affect staffing or services to Clovis Transit.

Janelle Del Campo, general manager for the Fresno County Rural Transit Authority, told Fresnoland on Thursday that the FCRTA stands to lose about $4 million annually. Like Clovis, Del Campo added that no decisions have been made yet to affect any established services, but she shared that “an extensive fiscal analysis” will be made to highlight those potential impacts and alternatives. 

The absence of Measure C funding would also result in all three parties — Fresno, Clovis and the county rural transit authority — losing out their crucial ability to leverage local funding to garner financial support from state and federal grants.

Among the known, immediate consequences of Measure C’s shuttering will likely come with the layoff of about 90 employees at the county public works department.

Andy Levine, a Fresno Unified School Board Trustee, and spokesperson for the Better Roads, Safe Streets coalition, told Fresnoland on Thursday that this, along with the City of Fresno choosing to go about their own tax plan, are just some of “likely to be many more devastating ripple effects of the decision by three supervisors last last Tuesday to really throw a wrench in the democratic process.” 

When asked if he thought the news of the new tax plan felt like the City of Fresno leaving Clovis and the county’s rural communities behind, Levine said they’re not the ones to blame. Specifically, Levine directed blame toward the three county supervisors who voted to request a study of the Better Roads tax measure — Nathan Magsig, Buddy Mendes and Board Chair Garry Bredefeld.

“I think the three supervisors are leaving the City of Clovis and all the other cities behind,” Levine said, “by their decision to intentionally run out the clock potentially on this measure qualifying for the November ballot, and our focus is on making sure that people understand just how much that was a political choice.”

Fresno County Board Vice Chair and former Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez,  told Fresnoland on Thursday that he “applauds” the City of Fresno for introducing their tax plan. 

“I will 100% support the measure and work to ensure we don’t have to layoff and continue to neglect our older neighborhoods and maintain critical investments in public transportation I worked hard to ensure while I was a councilmember,” Chavez said. “Our residents deserve to have their voices heard and respected!”

The Better Roads Safe Streets coalition is urging its supporters to call their county representatives to urge them to expedite the requested study and call a special meeting to place their tax measure on the November ballot.

Their stance makes it that much more notable that, although not yet confirmed, local agencies are now acting as if Measure C will not have a replacement measure on the November ballot. 

Some people aren’t quite past the mourning stage.

Alfredo Molina is the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1027 — the local chapter of the largest transit workers union in the country. He told Fresnoland last week that multiple union members reached out to him following the board meeting to better understand what will happen if the measure does get kicked to 2028. 

The city’s news conference Thursday, and subsequent council hearing next week, should do enough of the talking for him. Like the local transit agencies, he didn’t have a full, immediate grasp of the consequences either.

Molina says he’s still not sure he totally understands how we got here — to a place where local county governments are having to face the now very likely fragmentation of a transportation tax measure that, at least until last week, felt like an irreplaceable, load-bearing piece of legislation in Fresno.

“To be honest, it’s surreal that we’re even talking about this in a serious manner,” Molina said. “Something like the potential stop of a weekend service, I don’t even know what that would look like.”