The County Clerk/Registrar of Voters office estimates that placing all four of Fresno’s newly proposed measures on the Nov. 3 general election ballot would cost taxpayers $600,000.
The city’s elected officials will decide at Thursday’s council meeting whether to place each of them on the ballot for Fresno voters, estimated at $150,000 each.
The proposed measures — publicly unveiled for the first time Monday morning — include enacting a half-cent sales tax, financing for a major development project, establishing a redistricting advisory committee, and extending term limits for elected leaders.
The City of Fresno would be billed for the costs of adding these measures to the consolidated ballot and the County Voter Information Guide, James Kus, Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters, told The Bee.
The estimate includes the administrative costs of the measure, the cost of printing the measure question on the ballot, and the cost of printing the measure materials in the County Voter Information Guide.
It’s unclear how the city proposes to pay for the ballot measures, if approved. The council will likely discuss payment at the meeting on Thursday, according to the city clerk.
Two measures within a single jurisdiction is not uncommon in Fresno County, but Kus can’t personally remember a time when there were four.
“Four measures are not unheard of across the state, though probably still relatively rare,” Kus said. “We do regularly have a large number of state propositions, like the 14 we have this election.”
Any charter change or tax item must go before voters, like the proposed half-cent general tax and term limit expansion. Kus said others are placed on the ballot to allow voters to decide a controversial issue.
The proposed measures were unveiled Monday. A government ethics watchdog says a 72-hour notice is not enough time for Fresno residents to review, debate and discuss the four measures, The Bee recently reported.
Councilmember Nick Richardson told The Bee that as a “small government guy,” his struggle is deciphering whether the measure is potentially misleading or if it’s something worth sending to voters, he said.
“Both of those things are worded so craftily in the way they are set to appear on the ballot,” Richardson said, .referring to the SEDA financing proposal and a proposed term limit change. “Is it going to confuse voters to a level that they may pass something that ultimately they don’t agree with because it was worded creatively?”
“In which case, is it then my job to assume that I have the answers and to try to kill it before it makes it to a popular vote?” he said.
The Fresno City Council will vote to place each of the four measures on the November ballot this Thursday.
Fresno Bee Reporter Melissa Montalvo contributed to this report.
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Melissa Montalvo is The Fresno Bee’s accountability reporter. Prior to this role, she covered Latino communities for The Fresno Bee as the part of the Central Valley News Collaborative. She also reported on labor, economy and poverty through newsroom partnerships between The Fresno Bee, Fresnoland and CalMatters as a Report for America Corps member.