Fresno School Board Trustee Paid $90,000 by Campaign Behind Transportation Tax Measure

A Fresno Unified School District trustee received $90,000 over six months from the campaign pushing to put a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects on the November ballot, according to campaign finance reports.

Andrew Levine, who sits on the FUSD Board of Trustees, was paid by the Yes on Measure S campaign, which raised $1.25 million and spent $940,000 over six months to secure the ballot spot for the countywide transportation tax.

The payments to Levine, acting as their campaign manager, came as the Better Roads, Safe Streets campaign — the formal name behind Measure S — fought in court to keep the measure on the November ballot in place of Meaaure C. On Wednesday, the state and the campaign both submitted arguments to Fresno County Judge Jonathan Skiles, with a hearing scheduled for Friday afternoon.

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The campaign warned in its filing that keeping Measure S off the November ballot “will be catastrophic.” The State of California argued the lawsuit is unlikely to succeed and that Fresno County does not face irreparable harm if the measure appears on the ballot.

The Breakdown

• Measure S is a proposed half-cent sales tax increase for transportation projects across Fresno County
• The Yes on Measure S campaign raised $1.25 million and spent $940,000 over six months
• Andrew Levine, a Fresno Unified trustee, received $90,000 from the campaign during that period aa their campaign manager.
• A lawsuit challenges whether the measure can appear on the November ballot
• The state, the campaign, and Fresno County are in court this week, with a hearing set for Friday

What This Means for You

If Measure S survives the legal challenge and appears on your November ballot, you’ll be deciding whether to increase the county sales tax by half a cent to fund transportation projects. The campaign spending — including what went to an elected school board member — is part of the record of who backed getting this measure in front of you and how they spent to do it.

Levine is also reported as the Co-Director of Center of Community Voices at Fresno State, as well as a consultant with The Leadership Counsel For Justice and Accountability. He has reported earning between $10,0001-100,00 at each of these positions according to disclosure forms.

What to Watch

A Fresno Unified trustee pulling down $90,000 from a sales-tax campaign raises a basic question: does an elected school board member working as a paid consultant for a tax measure create a conflict of interest, or at minimum an appearance problem? The campaign paying Levine isn’t required to disclose what that $90,000 bought — strategy work, outreach, something else — so voters weighing Measure S are left to decide for themselves what it means that nearly 10% of the campaign’s spending went to one person who holds a different elected office.

Beyond one trustee’s paycheck, the larger pattern is this: when a campaign spends $940,000 just to secure a ballot spot (not yet to persuade voters), the campaign finance reports show who wanted this on your ballot badly enough to spend nearly a million dollars before the campaign even starts.