What’s at stake?
Cities in Fresno County estimate they’ll lose millions of dollars in transportation funding if Measure C expires next June without a replacement lined up. In the revamped assembly bill two state lawmakers brought forward on Monday, proponents of the Better Roads, Safe Streets plan to replace Measure C see one last hope.
The battle to find a successor for Fresno County’s soon-to-be-expired transportation tax just found a bigger arena.
On Monday morning, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Democrat and former Fresno city councilmember, rewrote a proposed statewide healthcare bill that had been in the works for months into an “emergency statute” requiring Fresno County to place qualified signature-led initiatives on the November ballot.
The bill, co-authored with state Sen. Anna Caballero, does not hide its intention to get the Better Roads, Safe Streets initiative qualified for the November ballot as a replacement for Measure C, Fresno County’s transportation tax, which expires in June 2027.
AB 1923 says a “special statute” is necessary because of “unique fiscal circumstances facing the County of Fresno arising from the expiration of its local transportation tax.”
“Voters and the residents of Fresno County should have the opportunity to decide the future of Measure C without delay,” said Brody Fernandez, a spokesperson for the state lawmaker’s office in a statement Monday afternoon.
The move from the pair of Fresno-area state lawmakers comes after a controversial vote at the Fresno County Board of Supervisors last month that delayed placing the Better Roads initiative on the ballot until after the completion of a 30-day study. That meant voters likely wouldn’t get to weigh in on the issue until 2028.
The board-majority said their intention in asking for the study was to avoid potential litigation over a measure that they called too “prescriptive” to the county. Multiple supervisors had long been critical of the Better Roads proposal before the July 14 vote, with Board Chair Garry Bredefeld routinely calling the measure a “scam” that overfunds public transit.
Proponents of Better Roads, on the other hand, decried the move as a political game intended to prevent the measure — which garnered more than 30,000 signatures from county registered voters — from qualifying for the November ballot by the Aug. 7 deadline.
If Measure C expires without a replacement, cities are anticipating budgetary shortfalls measured in the tens of millions.
The City of Fresno has projected the loss of roughly $54 million annually, 217 jobs and the elimination of weekend evening service on FAX. Clovis anticipates to take a $6.3 million hit annually. The Fresno County Rural Transportation Authority expects to lose about $4 million each year.
Before the supervisors’ vote, county staff also said they expect to lay off 90 employees without a Measure C replacement.
Fernandez said the bill will go before the Assembly and Senate Elections Committees in hearings on Wednesday.
“If passed in the Senate Elections Committee,” he added, “it will move to the Senate floor where it will be eligible for a vote on Thursday.”
The bill will require a two-thirds vote in both houses of the state legislature to pass since it’s an “urgency” measure set to take effect immediately upon approval.
Soria and Caballero’s move has some precedent in state politics. Referred to as “gut-and-amend” by lawmakers, the procedure involves the drastic rewriting of legislation late in the law-making process. At times, the practice has been seen as controversial.
It’s also not the first time the state legislature has intervened in local transportation policy.
Michael Lane, policy director at the San Francisco-based think tank SPUR, was involved when the state legislature authorized the placement of a transportation funding measure on the ballot in the Bay Area in 2018.
However, Lane said that move was endorsed by a coalition of Bay Area counties, setting up a collaborative effort between multiple levels of government. He noted that difference with Fresno County’s situation, describing it as “a board of supervisors that is trying to run out the clock as opposed to, for the next general election, place that measure on the ballot.”
Lane also called Fresno’s situation “unprecedented.” Specifically, he was surprised to see the state lawmakers step in.
“That’s an important move by the legislature,” he said, “trying to protect that legislative process and the ability of the citizens to gather signatures and place a measure on the ballot.”
Bredefeld framed Soria and Caballero’s move as them “rewriting the rules.” When asked if the county would litigate the matter, he said all options are on the table.
“We will consider every option available to us to protect our citizens,” Bredefeld told Fresnoland, “from these corrupt Sacramento politicians and their disgraceful efforts to influence our local elections in order to help their radical friends implement a 30 year tax scheme.”
Fernandez countered that the only unprecedented action in this case is coming from the county supervisors.
“The legislature regularly passes laws to ensure local elections are conducted fairly and in a manner that accurately captures the will of the voters,” Fernandez said. “What is unprecedented is the Fresno Supervisors using their authority to request a report on an initiative strategically to push that initiative off the ballot.”
He added that Soria’s office reviewed the legislation with legal counsel to ensure it’s “legally sound.”
Soria’s office is likely right.
Lane said that for more than 100 years, the California Constitution has granted unique powers to voters, often allowing them a lower-barrier to introduce new legislation. He said that power has often held up in court.
“In general, because of that legislative history,” Lane said, “the courts tend to be deferential to citizens, particularly when they’re collecting signatures to place a measure on the ballot.”
But the voters’ initiative power hasn’t been without contention. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association, a notable anti-tax group, successfully qualified a measure for California’s November election that aims to limit future taxes brought through citizen-backed petitions. If approved later this year, it will raise the threshold of voter approval that citizen-backed petitions must cross from a simple majority to two-thirds.
Had that threshold been in place in the past, ballot measures like Measure P in Fresno — which garnered 53% of support in 2018 — wouldn’t have passed.
The Better Roads campaign thanked the state lawmakers for “standing up for Fresno County taxpayers, working families, and local communities” in a statement on Monday.
Just three days earlier, 11 mayors within the Better Roads coalition, including Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, had sent letters to Soria and Caballero on July 31 asking for their “assistance in finding a path forward for the Fresno County Transportation Improvement Act to be placed on the November 2026 General Election ballot.”
Dyer’s office declined to comment further for this story.
Before Monday’s rewrite, AB 1923 was a proposed extension of Soria’s Distressed Hospital Loan Program.
Fernandez said Soria in the meantime is seeking options to still pass the extension of the loan program law this year.
“Many options are on the table,” he said, “and Assemblywoman Soria is not willing to simply let the policy disappear.”
