Fresno County’s Measure S: A 30-year transportation tax voters will decide Nov. 3

Fresno County voters face a November 3 decision on Measure S, a proposed half-cent sales tax projected to generate $7.4 billion over 30 years for roads, transit, and school-safety projects. The measure would continue the same half-cent rate voters first approved in 1986 as Measure C, which expires June 30, 2027.

Because Measure S qualified as a citizen initiative — supporters turned in over 32,000 petition signatures, and the county registrar verified 22,205 — it needs only a simple majority to pass. The prior 2022 renewal effort, which required a two-thirds threshold, failed at 58%.

If Measure S fails, the half-cent tax disappears July 1, 2027, and Fresno County’s sales tax rate drops by half a cent unless another measure replaces it.

Measure S allocates 65% of revenue to existing neighborhood roads and 5% to regional projects. That compares to 34.6% for local roads and 30.4% for regional improvements under the expiring Measure C. Twenty-five percent would fund public transit — 70% to Fresno Area Express, 20% to Fresno County Rural Transit Agency, 10% to Clovis Transit — and 4% would cover free fares for seniors 62 and older, students, veterans, active-duty military, people with disabilities, and children.

Cities can spend Measure S local-road money on road widening only after every street in their jurisdiction reaches a Pavement Condition Index score of at least 65 — considered “fair” — and then only up to 5% of funds per year. Measure S bars using neighborhood-road revenue on streets in new growth areas or new town developments.

The measure requires at least 120 miles of bike paths or protected bike lanes built countywide by 2057 — 84 miles in Fresno and Clovis, 36 in unincorporated county areas — and at least 150 school-safety projects within a mile of schools. Cities and the county that fail to adopt a school-safety plan lose their share of Measure S neighborhood-road money.

Measure S would shift administration from the Fresno County Transportation Authority to the Fresno Council of Governments. Each city and the county must submit annual independent audits. An 11-member Citizens Oversight Committee — selected by Fresno COG’s policy board, with elected officials and agency staff barred — would review audits, publish annual findings, and refer suspected misuse to prosecutors. The measure does not give the committee authority to stop an expenditure or require Fresno COG to adopt a recommendation.

The measure includes a mandatory comprehensive public review at least every 10 years.

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer and the mayors of Clovis, Coalinga, Firebaugh, Fowler, Kerman, Mendota, Orange Cove, Parlier, Huron, and San Joaquin — representing a combined population of 778,407 — support the measure. Fresno County Board of Supervisors Chairman Garry Bredefeld, Supervisor Nathan Magsig, and former Fresno city councilman and county supervisor Henry Perea oppose it.

Bredefeld calls the measure “a public transportation tax disguised as a roads tax” and claims it would “get people out of their cars and riding buses, bicycles and scooters to work — instead of fixing the deteriorating roads.” He also states Measure S won’t address the county’s road maintenance backlog.

Perea, who worked on an alternative measure that failed to qualify, says the PCI-score restriction means cities “will never have the opportunity to improve Manning Avenue out to Parlier or do something out to Mendota. That work will never ever happen in the next 30 years if this measure passes.”

Supporters say Measure S corrects decades of highway-expansion spending that left neighborhood roads in disrepair. Between 2008 and 2020, Fresno County’s average pavement score fell 14 points — the biggest drop among California’s 10 biggest counties. An October 2025 survey of 1,660 likely voters found fixing potholes (82%) and prioritizing the worst roads (80%) topped the list of features voters called very important.

The Yes on Measure S campaign reported raising over $1.8 million as of October 2, including $848,000 from the Central Valley Community Foundation and $20,000 from Kat Taylor of Redwood City, described as a “partner” of billionaire Tom Steyer. The No on S Fresno County Committee has raised $35,000 as of October 2 — $10,000 from retiring Supervisor Buddy Mendes’ campaign account and $25,000 from contractor, developer, and Republican donor Richard Spencer.

Fresno’s own Measure D, a separate half-cent general tax for the city’s general fund, also appears on the November ballot. If Measure S passes, Measure D does not take effect regardless of the vote count. If both fail, Measure C’s half-cent tax expires and Fresno County’s sales tax rate drops.

The Breakdown

• What it does: Establishes a half-cent sales tax for 30 years starting July 1, 2027 — the same rate as the expiring Measure C — projected to raise $7.4 billion countywide.
• Where the money goes: 65% to existing neighborhood roads, 25% to public transit, 5% to regional projects (including 1% to Fresno Yosemite International Airport), 4% to free fares and innovation grants, 1% to administration.
• Road-repair rule: Cities must bring every street to a Pavement Condition Index score of at least 65 (considered “fair”) before spending more than 5% a year on road widening. Revenue cannot fund streets in new growth areas.
• School-safety requirement: Each city and the county must adopt a plan to reduce serious injuries and deaths within a mile of schools, with at least 150 projects built countywide by 2057, or lose all Measure S neighborhood-road funding.
• Bike infrastructure: At least 120 miles of bike paths or protected bike lanes must be built by 2057.
• Oversight: An 11-member Citizens Oversight Committee reviews annual independent audits and publishes annual findings. The committee can recommend actions and refer suspected misuse to prosecutors but cannot stop spending or force Fresno COG to adopt recommendations.
• What it takes to pass: Simple majority — 50% plus one vote — because it qualified as a citizen initiative.

What This Means for You

Your vote determines whether Fresno County keeps the same half-cent transportation tax it has paid since 1986, or loses that funding stream entirely when Measure C expires June 30, 2027. The choice is not between a new tax and the status quo — it is between continuing the tax under a new spending plan focused on neighborhood roads and school safety, or ending the tax.

If you support the PCI-score rule that cities must meet before widening roads, and the school-safety mandate that costs cities their funding if they fail to deliver it, Measure S writes those requirements into law a future city council cannot ignore. If you oppose the bike-lane mileage requirement, the transit funding share, or the oversight structure, or if you believe the PCI threshold will block necessary road projects, your vote is the only mechanism to stop it — a failed measure cannot be amended later.

The question is not whether you trust the officials quoted in the campaign material — it is whether you trust a structure that gives you annual audits, public oversight meetings, and mandatory 10-year reviews, or whether you would rather wait for a replacement measure that does not yet exist and has shown no evidence of the coalition-building necessary to pass.

What You Can Do

Vote on or before November 3, 2026.

What to Watch

The oversight structure Measure S establishes is real, but its power is limited. The 11-member Citizens Oversight Committee can review audits, publish findings, and recommend actions — but it cannot stop an expenditure, change a project decision, or force Fresno COG to adopt a recommendation. Every member is selected by the governing board of the agency the committee is supposed to oversee. That is not independent oversight in the sense that a watchdog needs teeth — it is reporting without enforcement authority.

The measure bars elected officials and agency staff from serving on the committee, but it does not answer: what happens when the committee identifies a problem? If a project arrives years late, costs more than projected, or never reaches the street a resident needed repaired, who is accountable? The material gives no answer.

The PCI-score threshold — every street at 65 or above before a city can widen roads — is either the accountability structure supporters say it is, or the growth-killing restriction opponents claim. The answer depends on whether cities can actually reach that threshold with the funding Measure S provides, and whether the “worst first” repair strategy leaves any city perpetually below 65 because its worst roads pull the average down faster than repairs can lift it.

Fresno’s current average is 60; Mendota’s is 36. Whether those cities reach 65 in time to unlock any widening money — or whether the threshold effectively bans widening for 30 years, as Perea claims — is a factual question the measure’s projections assert but no completed project has tested.

The no-sprawl provision bars using neighborhood-road revenue on streets in “new growth areas” or “new town developments.” That language does not define what counts as a growth area, who decides, or what happens when a city disagrees. If a developer challenges the restriction or a city council tries to work around it, the measure does not state who enforces the line.

The school-safety mandate is an all-or-nothing penalty: fail to adopt a plan, lose all Measure S neighborhood-road money. That is accountability in the sense that the consequence is real, but it also means a city that fails on school safety cannot repair a single pothole with Measure S funds, even for a street nowhere near a school. Whether that produces safer routes or just punishes residents for their council’s failure is the kind of outcome a voter can watch for after the first deadline passes.

On transit, the 25% allocation is nearly unchanged from Measure C’s 24%, but Measure S adds year-over-year improvement requirements on ridership, service frequency, wait times, and on-time performance. If an agency fails to meet those targets, the material does not state whether it loses funding, faces a reduction, or simply reports the shortfall with no penalty. The difference matters — a requirement without a consequence is a suggestion.

Finally, the measure’s economic-impact estimate — 68,000 job-years, $13.5 billion in total economic output — is attributed to “an independent economic analysis” the material does not name, cite, or link to. Whether that figure is a model, a forecast, or a projection from comparable spending elsewhere, and whether it accounts for the opportunity cost of what else $7.4 billion could have funded, is unknowable from what you were given. The campaign is selling the jobs figure as a benefit; you cannot verify it as fact.

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