How do Fresno County residents want Measure C transportation funding spent? Here’s a first look

Fresno County’s regional transportation planning board will get a first glimpse at how residents want Measure C tax dollars to be spent this week — and some of the recommendations look a lot different than a couple of years ago.

Staff with the Fresno Council of Governments, which is helping facilitate efforts toward renewing Fresno County’s transportation sales tax, will present initial results from surveys of over 1,300 respondents at Thursday’s COG policy board meeting.

Those preliminary results show that county residents want the plurality of Measure C funding, or 46%, to go toward local street and road maintenance. The second highest requested allocation is 19% for bike and pedestrian networks, as well as “Safe Routes to Schools.”

These results are hardly set in stone, however, Fresno COG Executive Director Robert Phipps said in an interview. On the one hand, COG is still collecting survey responses through Aug. 5. On the other, the data isn’t a statistically valid sample, he said, but rather an “attempt to reach people who, historically, are not necessarily part of these kinds of processes.”

“This amounts to a data point for the steering committee and the board to consider in its deliberations about the measure,” Phipps added, “and the allocations that will be forthcoming. But it’s not the end of the conversation. It’s really just the beginning. There’s still a lot of information to come.”

Disagreement over spending priorities — particularly over how much should go toward local roads versus other categories like public transit — helped tank another Measure C renewal attempt in 2022. Some sparring over the ratios has again led to controversy this time around. 

In the latest chapter of that familiar story, Fresno paving company CEO Brooke Ashjian briefly got booted from the Measure C steering committee over some of his comments to the media, accusing local activists of trying to get half of Measure C funds slated for public transit. 

COG policy board chair Alma Beltran cited those comments as part of the basis for his brief removal, though he was quickly reinstated after backlash from Fresno officials. The coalition of transportation advocates Ashjian alluded to, called Transportation for All, also disputed Ashjian’s accusations.

The prioritization of bike and pedestrian investments in Thursday’s aggregate results also represents a dramatic departure from the Measure C spending plan that failed to gather sufficient support from Fresno County voters in the November 2022 election. That plan allocated just 1% for bike and pedestrian investments.

These latest Measure C renewal efforts are the region’s last chance to put the measure back on the ballot during a general election before it expires in 2027.

Thursday’s presentation represents results collected from April 10 through July 24, and the COG policy board will discuss them in greater detail at Thursday’s board meeting.

So will the Measure C steering committee at its meeting Wednesday, Phipps said.

Ashjian didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

What else do the preliminary survey results say?

Thursday’s survey results show transit as the third-highest ranked priority behind local roads as well as bike and pedestrian investments, with respondents hoping to see 18% set aside for it.

On top of that, survey respondents said they want 14% of Measure C funding for “regional projects.”

This is the equivalent of the “Major Roads and Highways” category in the 2022 version of the spending plan, Phipps confirmed. 

The remaining 3% is recommended for “Other/Local Programs,” survey results show.

The failed 2022 Measure C spending plan, by comparison, allocated a majority, or 51%, of funding for local road repairs. That was followed by a category called “Local Control,” sitting at 18%. That referred to discretionary funds for local cities covered by the plan to allocate themselves in their own budget processes.

That “Local Control” category doesn’t have a counterpart in the current COG survey. 

“The basis for that was to try and simplify the measure for people to understand,” Phipps said, and to keep the allocations at this stage to four broad categories.

The remaining categories under the 2022 spending plan included urban and rural public transit at 12%, “Environmental Sustainability” at 2%, safe bikes and pedestrians at 1% and administrative costs at 1%.

The Measure C steering committee meets Wednesday evening starting at 5:30 p.m. The meeting isn’t open to the public or media to attend in person, but anyone can tune in via Zoom.

The Fresno COG policy board meeting — which is open to the public — starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and is located in the COG Sequoia Conference Room at 2035 Tulare St., Suite 201, on the second floor.