FRESNO COUNTY – The Fresno Council of Governments is combining its efforts to renew Measure C, the Fresno County transportation sales tax, with a community-based coalition known as Transportation For All.
In a June 26 press release, Transportation For All announced that the Fresno COG Policy Board voted to join forces with the coalition and add seats for coalition members to the Measure C steering committee. This action means that more individuals will have a say in what the final proposal for Measure C looks like, and it minimizes the possibility of two competing tax measures going to the ballot in 2026.
“A people-drive process gives us the best chance to move forward a transportation measure we can all support in 2026,” Sandra Celedon, coalition member and CEO of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, said in the press release. “We know the community has the expertise to shape road, transit and mobility solutions to meet our everyday needs and make our county a better place to live and work for decades to come.”
Measure C is the Fresno County sales tax that has allocated its revenue to transportation projects since 1986. The measure provides Fresno County’s 15 incorporated cities with funding for city-specific transportation projects, like road improvements, and also funds regional infrastructure upgrades, like the Golden State Boulevard Corridor Project that spans three cities.
As Measure C is set to expire in 2027, Fresno COG and the Fresno County Transportation Authority (FCTA), which oversees the measure, are working to put Measure C on the November 2026 ballot for renewal. In order to pass, the measure must receive a two-thirds majority — something it failed to do after the last renewal effort in November 2022.
Renewing Measure C does not mean the county would add a new sales tax. Instead, it would simply extend the current tax. What would be new with the measure, however, is what specifically the tax revenue would be used for and how it would be divided among cities and projects. This is what Fresno COG and FCTA are gathering community input on and working to draft.
While Fresno COG and FCTA have started this renewal process, Transportation For All started its own parallel process, separately gathering community input and putting together a steering committee.
With the vote to combine efforts, the groups will now be working together on this process. Additionally, Fresno COG agreed to add 12 seats to its Measure C steering committee for Transportation For All members.
According to Fresnoland, the 16-member Fresno COG Policy Board, comprised of mayors from each city and a member of the board of supervisors, voted 11-4 to combine the efforts. Kingsburg Mayor Brandon Pursell Jr., Reedley Mayor Matthew Tuttle, Selma Mayor Scott Robertson and County Supervisor Garry Bredefeld all voted against combining the efforts. Sanger Mayor Frank Gonzalez was absent from the meeting, Fresnoland reported.
The steering committee will eventually vote on what the final measure will look like. Once the steering committee has a Measure C plan, the draft measure will need to be approved by all Fresno County cities and the county itself to be placed on the ballot.
“We all agree that we need a measure to fund critical projects across our county,” Parlier Mayor and Fresno COG Chair Alma Beltran and Mendota Mayor and COG Vice Chair Victor Martinez said in the press release. “Now more than ever, it’s important that we work together to put a plan in place that leads to a balanced ballot measure — one that Fresno County families can support and that truly benefits our entire region.”
