Fresno city officials will try their hand at a transportation tax of their own with Measure C set to expire next year.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, City Council President Nelson Esparza and Councilmember Mike Karbassi announced on Thursday that the council will vote on July 30 whether to place a half-cent transportation sales tax on the November ballot.
Driving the news: Last week, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors ordered a study on the Better Roads, Safe Streets tax initiative, effectively blocking it from appearing on the November ballot.
The social justice-backed proposal had been on track to go to the voters in November, but it failed its random sampling test of signatures in May, forcing the county to manually verify the signatures.
Since the study will take 30 days, the board of supervisors will not consider the initiative again until after the Aug. 7 deadline to place measures on the ballot.
The big picture: The city’s proposal would span 10 years but would expire if a county-wide transportation tax is ever approved by voters.
The tax would raise around $65 million annually, and the spending would be determined by the city council and the mayor.
If the council decides to place it on the ballot next week, the measure would need a majority vote to pass in November.
The tax would go into effect on July 1 of next year, the day after Measure C is set to expire.
What they’re saying: Dyer said during a press conference Thursday that the city will lose $54 million annually when Measure C expires, which would also threaten 217 jobs.
“The loss of these funds would severely, severely hinder our ability to maintain streets and sidewalks, pedestrian trails, trim our trees, and to do litter abatement,” Dyer said.