Karbassi and Pacheco Both Back Measure S Road Tax in District 1 Supervisor Runoff

The two candidates headed for a November runoff in Fresno County’s District 1 supervisor race both support Measure S, the ballot measure asking voters to replace the county’s 40-year-old road tax with a new half-cent sales tax. Mike Karbassi, a Fresno City Council member, and Maria Pacheco, Kerman’s mayor, say the measure delivers dollars their communities need — even as they frame the stakes differently.

Karbassi, in his second term on the Fresno City Council, voted to support both Measure S and Measure D, a Fresno-specific road tax drafted as a fallback when it looked like Measure S wouldn’t make the ballot. He calls passing Measure S essential to avoid a “major deficit” for the city and lost funding for rural communities. “Is Measure S perfect? Probably not,” Karbassi said. “Any policy is never going to be perfect when you’ve got a bunch of sides negotiating, but it’s what we got, and I think not supporting it would be a mistake.” He warned that failure could lead to layoffs for workers like bus drivers.

Pacheco’s city, Kerman, adopted a resolution Wednesday to officially support the measure. As Kerman’s mayor, Pacheco says the city stands to double its Measure S revenue compared to the last 30 years. “More excited that the voters who put this together will have the opportunity to vote yes or no, and finally have control over their own tax dollars,” she said. Pacheco is a senior field representative for Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria’s office and testified in Sacramento for Assembly Bill 1923, the state law that overrode county supervisors and placed Measure S on the ballot after a majority ordered a study that would have delayed it.

Measure S would replace Measure C, the current half-cent sales tax Fresno County has had since 1986 to fund transportation, transit, and infrastructure improvements. Voters renewed it in 2006. It expires in 2027. The tax makes Fresno County a “self-help county” — the dedicated revenue can be used to pull down grants for larger projects. Fresno County taxpayers have paid billions in dedicated sales tax under the measure over four decades.

The Breakdown

• Measure S is a November ballot measure asking voters to replace Measure C, the county’s existing half-cent sales tax for roads and transit that expires in 2027.
• The current tax has been in place since 1986, was renewed by voters in 2006, and has generated billions in county transportation funding over 40 years.
• Measure S nearly didn’t make the ballot after a majority of county supervisors ordered a study that would have delayed it past the November 3 deadline. State legislators Esmeralda Soria and Anna Caballero sponsored Assembly Bill 1923 in late July to override the supervisors and place it on the ballot.
• Both District 1 supervisor candidates — Mike Karbassi (Fresno City Council) and Maria Pacheco (Kerman mayor) — publicly support the measure, citing funding needs for their respective jurisdictions.
• A “self-help county” is one with dedicated local tax revenue that can be used to secure matching state and federal grants for larger transportation projects.

What This Means for You

If you’re voting in Fresno County’s District 1 supervisor race, you now know both finalists support Measure S — so your supervisor vote won’t determine how that office weighs in on the road tax, but your own vote on Measure S in November will. The measure replaces an existing tax set to expire in 2027, meaning a “no” vote doesn’t preserve the status quo — it ends the county’s four-decade self-help funding model entirely. That’s the deficit risk Karbassi names and the revenue loss Pacheco’s rural city would face. Your vote determines whether the county keeps that dedicated transportation funding stream or loses it.

What You Can Do

Measure S will appear on the November 3 ballot for all Fresno County voters.

What to Watch

Both candidates frame this as a straightforward funding question — support it or lose the money. The revenue calculation matters: Kerman expects to “double” its Measure S dollars compared to the past 30 years, per Pacheco.

The political backdrop is worth tracking: a majority of county supervisors tried to delay this measure, and it took a state legislative override to get it on the ballot. That’s not routine process — it’s a power struggle over who controls the county’s transportation funding agenda.

If you’re voting for one of those seats, you’re also deciding whether you want a supervisor who thinks voters should have had more time to review this, or one who thinks the delay was obstruction. The candidates’ positions on Measure S may tell you less than their positions on AB 1923’s override.