Fresno County Transportation Tax Renewal Would Lock In $7.4 Billion Over 30 Years — With New Limits On How Cities Can Spend It

Fresno County voters will decide November 3 whether to replace Measure C, the half-cent transportation sales tax that expires next summer, with Measure S — a 30-year, $7.4 billion measure that would impose new spending restrictions on cities and tie the money to measurable road-quality targets for the first time in the tax’s 40-year history.

Measure S is a citizens’ initiative. Supporters collected more than 32,000 petition signatures; the county registrar verified 22,205, just over the 21,909 required to place it on the ballot. That signature threshold means Measure S needs only a simple majority to pass, not the two-thirds supermajority that defeated the 2022 Measure C renewal attempt at 58%.

The half-cent rate would remain unchanged from the current Measure C tax, which ends June 30, 2027. Measure S would begin collecting July 1, 2027 — the day after Measure C stops. Legally, Measure S is a new tax, not an extension, though the rate paid by Fresno County residents stays the same unless Measure S fails, in which case the half-cent tax disappears and the county’s sales tax rate drops by half a cent.

Measure S makes three stated commitments: fix neighborhood roads first, make students safer near schools, and keep public transit running. It also does something no prior version of Measure C has done — it ties the money to specific performance targets on road quality and school safety, and bans cities from spending their share on road-widening projects until their existing neighborhood streets meet a minimum quality standard.

Between 2008 and 2020, Fresno County’s average pavement score fell 14 points — the largest drop among California’s 10 biggest counties, according to a report commissioned by the county. “I go to a lot of places, and I hear from people that we spent all this money on Measure C but our roads are still terrible,” Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said at the December 18, 2025 Fresno Council of Governments meeting where an initial version of the plan was approved. “So there is a belief out there that we haven’t spent money appropriately.”

The old versions of Measure C handed most of the money to cities as “flex dollars” and to a list of projects in the regional highway program, spent “without being tied to specific success metrics,” according to the county-commissioned report. Measure S’s supporters say the new structure corrects that.

Measure S would devote about $160 million a year — out of the projected $246 million raised annually — to road repaving, new sidewalks, and other safety projects. Fresno COG, the county’s main transportation planning agency, designed Measure S to raise the countywide average pavement score to about 70 by the early 2040s and hold it there into the 2050s. That figure is the bottom of the “good” range on the Pavement Condition Index, a 0-to-100 scale used to grade roads. It would put Fresno County’s roads on par with San Diego County and Santa Clara County, according to the campaign.

The measure includes an explicit ban: none of Measure S’s neighborhood road money can pay for streets in new growth areas or new master-planned towns. Cities cannot spend their share on widening roads until every street in the city scores at least 65 — “fair” — and the citywide average reaches at least 70. Even after meeting that threshold, cities can spend no more than 5% of their annual allocation on widening projects. Roads in the worst condition get fixed first.

A quarter of the revenue goes to transit — 70% to Fresno Area Express, 20% to the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency, 10% to Clovis Transit — and paratransit for seniors and people with disabilities must be funded first. Each agency must show year-over-year improvement on ridership, how many urban routes run every 15 minutes or better, travel times to key destinations, transfers, wait times, and on-time performance.

Another 4% of the measure pays for free fares for seniors 62 and older, active-duty military, veterans, people with disabilities, students, and children. Just 4% — about $223 million over 30 years — goes to projects that serve more than one city, including state highways. Cities, the county, and Caltrans compete for that money, and projects must reduce driving, reduce crashes, increase walking, biking or transit, clean the air, improve access to jobs, or bring other direct local benefits. The last 2% would split between administering the measure and Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Measure S includes a second performance requirement tied to school safety. By July 2029, each city and the county must count the serious injuries and deaths within a mile of every school over the prior five years, set yearly targets to reduce them, and adopt a plan to increase school safety after at least three public meetings. If a city or the county fails to complete a plan, it loses its share of Measure S’s neighborhood road money — all of it, pothole repairs included.

The measure aims to build at least 150 projects within a mile of schools by 2057 that would make it safer for kids to walk to and from school or cross the street to be picked up by parents.

Annual independent audits, reviewed by a citizens oversight committee where elected officials are banned from serving, will check that the spending rules are followed. Regional road and highway projects would be selected only after at least three public meetings — one each on the east side, the west side, and in the Fresno metro area. Money is handed out in four rounds, the first by June 30, 2028, and agencies are only reimbursed after they spend, never advanced.

Supervisor Garry Bredefeld, chair of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, called Measure S “a scam” and “a public transportation tax disguised as a roads tax.” Bredefeld says, falsely, that Measure S won’t touch the county’s road maintenance backlog. He also objects to the requirement for 120 miles of bike lanes to be built out across the county.

Opponents worry that the accountability measures baked into Measure S will hurt growth. If local roads must be fixed first and school routes made safer before new roads get built, that would “hamstring local governments who want to build new roads near the fringes of town, and thereby reduce some of the region’s economic dynamism,” according to the material.

The Yes on S committee, Fresno County Residents for Better Roads and Safe Streets, has raised over $1.8 million as of October 2, including $848,000 from the Central Valley Community Foundation. Other top funders include the North Coast States Regional Council of Carpenters and the Fund for a Better Future, a committee of the Resources Legacy Fund, which helps fund campaigns that make California communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The No on S Fresno County Committee has raised $10,000 from retiring Supervisor Buddy Mendes’ campaign account and $25,000 from contractor, developer, and major Republican donor Richard Spencer as of October 2. The Valley Red Wave PAC has spent $596 on “No on S” signs across the county.

The campaign’s economic analysis estimates Measure S would support about 68,000 job-years — about 40,000 of them directly — and $5.1 billion in total wages over 30 years.

If Measure S fails, Measure C expires June 30, 2027, and the county would lose the half-cent transportation tax entirely. The City of Fresno has placed Measure D on the same ballot as a backstop — a half-cent general tax for the city’s general fund that would end if Measure S or another countywide road tax passes. If Measure S fails and Measure D passes, the city would collect its own half-cent tax for 10 years before it expires.

The Breakdown

• Measure S would replace the expiring Measure C with a new 30-year, half-cent sales tax projected to raise $7.4 billion total, or about $246 million per year.
• It begins collecting July 1, 2027 — the day after Measure C expires — keeping the sales tax rate unchanged for Fresno County residents unless Measure S fails, in which case the rate drops by half a cent.
• Cities cannot spend their share on road widening until every street scores at least 65 on the Pavement Condition Index and the citywide average reaches 70. Even after meeting that threshold, no more than 5% of annual funding can go to widening projects. None of the neighborhood road money can pay for streets in new growth areas or master-planned towns.
• Each city and the county must complete a school-safety plan by July 2029 showing how it will reduce serious injuries and deaths within a mile of every school. Failure to complete the plan means losing all Measure S neighborhood road money, including pothole repairs.
• A quarter of the revenue goes to transit (70% FAX, 20% rural transit, 10% Clovis Transit); another 4% pays for free fares for seniors, veterans, students, and people with disabilities; 4% goes to regional projects selected through competitive grants after public meetings; 2% goes to administration and the airport.
• Annual independent audits reviewed by a citizens oversight committee — where elected officials are banned from serving — will verify compliance with the spending rules.
• As a citizens’ initiative, Measure S needs only a simple majority to pass, not the two-thirds supermajority that defeated the 2022 renewal at 58%.

What This Means for You

Your vote on Measure S determines whether Fresno County keeps the half-cent transportation sales tax you’ve been paying since 1987 — and whether the new version comes with enforceable limits on how cities can spend it. If Measure S passes, cities must fix their existing neighborhood roads and adopt school-safety plans before they can widen roads or build streets in new developments. If it fails, the tax disappears next summer, transit service would face cuts, and road repairs would depend on whatever each city can fund separately. The City of Fresno’s Measure D would collect a replacement half-cent tax for city services only, expiring in 10 years, but nothing would replace the county-wide funding for transit or rural roads.

This is the first Measure C renewal in 40 years that requires cities to meet a minimum road-quality standard before spending on expansion — a response to the county’s roads dropping 14 points on the pavement index between 2008 and 2020, the worst decline among the state’s 10 largest counties. Your vote sets whether that constraint becomes law or whether cities return to the old “flex dollar” system with no performance requirement attached.

What You Can Do

Vote on Measure S by November 3, 2026. Early voting and vote-by-mail are available through the Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters.

The Yes on S campaign operates at fresnoroadsnow.org. The No on S committee has no stated website in the material.