Fresno City Council to vote on sales tax measure to replace expiring Measure C

The Fresno City Council will vote July 30 on whether to place a half-cent sales tax measure on the November 2026 ballot to cover a projected budget shortfall after the county’s Measure C expires next summer.

Mayor Jerry Dyer, City Council President Nelson Esparza, and Councilmember Mike Karbassi announced the proposal Thursday at a news conference. The measure, called the Fresno Public Safety Infrastructure Restoration and Essential Services Act, would implement a sales tax designed to replace what residents already pay as part of Measure C. City leaders emphasized this means residents would not be voting on a tax increase.

Dyer said the city will lose $54 million annually when Measure C expires, which would also threaten 217 jobs. The city’s proposal would span 10 years but would expire if a countywide transportation tax is ever approved by voters.

Advertisement

The announcement 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, approved through a 3-2 vote, will very likely not be completed before the deadline to place a measure on this year’s general election ballot. Dyer said the supervisors “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.

“I would rather not be standing here,” Esparza said. “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 Breakdown

• The Fresno City Council will vote July 30 on whether to place the measure on the November 2026 ballot
• The proposed half-cent sales tax would last 10 years
• The tax would automatically expire if voters later approve a countywide transportation tax
• City leaders say this would not increase the total sales tax rate because it replaces what residents currently pay under Measure C
• If approved by the council, city voters would make the final decision in November 2026

What This Means for You

If you live in Fresno, you will likely vote in November 2026 on whether to approve a city sales tax to fund transportation and infrastructure after Measure C expires. If the measure passes, you would continue paying the same sales tax rate you pay now, but the money would go to the city rather than being distributed countywide.