{"id":267900,"date":"2026-04-14T21:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267900\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T21:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T21:00:10","slug":"fresno-countys-road-tax-proposal-submits-signatures-wheres-the-other-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/267900\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County’s Road Tax Proposal Submits Signatures. Where’s the Other One?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six weeks after announcing the plan to replace Fresno County\u2019s Measure C, organizers behind a new transportation tax intended to fix urban and rural roads say they have the signatures to qualify for the November ballot.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Better Roads, Safer Streets coalition submitted the necessary 32,000 petition signatures to put the tax before voters in November, said Veronica Garibay, co-founder of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability at a news conference outside the Fresno County Clerk\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll repair our local streets and roads in our neighborhoods, the roads and streets we use to get to school, to work, to our homes, to our community centers, to basic services. It\u2019ll make it quicker and easier and faster to get from Point A to Point B,\u201d Garibay said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFresno to Get $75 Million a Year in Road Repair Funds: Dyer<\/p>\n

Like the four-decade old Measure C, the Better Roads, Safer Streets initiative would use a half-cent sales tax to pay for road repair, public transit, and enhanced sidewalks, bike walks, and trails.<\/p>\n

The group estimates that over the 30 years of the tax, it will raise $7.3 billion.<\/p>\n

It dedicates 65% of funds to road repair, 25% to public transit, 4% to public transit innovation, 4% to regional projects, 1% to airports, and 1% to administration.<\/p>\n

Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said the measure will result in $75 million a year to the city alone. He says the city has $1.2 billion of deferred road repair needs and $300 million in deferred sidewalk repair needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will allow us not only to fix our roads but to fix our sidewalks, to be able to fix our worst streets first and fix them immediately \u2014 not repairing potholes, as we\u2019ve seen historically, but long-term solution fixing our roads for good,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Huron Mayor Rey Leon (left) and Clovis Mayor Vong Mouanoutoua deliver signatures for the Better Roads. Safe Streets initiative to the Fresno County Clerk on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (GV Wire\/Edward Smith)
\nSignature Gathering a \u2018Sprint\u2019<\/p>\n

Fresno County Clerk\/Registrar of Voters James Kus had long said qualifying a voter initiative would be a tough task. This late in the game, a voter initiative would need to turn in 32,000 signatures to his office by May so that the signatures can be verified.<\/p>\n

Fresno Unified Trustee and Better Roads Safe Streets organizer Andy Levine called the effort a \u201csprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all over the county, all hands on deck, volunteers and groups of supporters all over the county were gathering signatures outside of grocery stores, at events, at their house parties, really wherever we knew voters were going to be. We were inviting people,\u201d Levine said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Huron Mayor Rey Leon, Central Valley Community Foundation executive Director Ashley Swearengin, and Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer pose for a selfie outside the Fresno County Clerk\u2019s Office on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. (GV Wire\/Edward Smith)
\nAlternative Transportation Tax Proposal Limited to Volunteers<\/p>\n

The Better Roads Safe Streets organizers aren\u2019t the only residents with a plan to replace Measure C.<\/p>\n

Many of the people behind the original Measure C, including former Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea, former Fresno Council of Governments director Tony Boren, and Fresno County Transportation Authority director Mike Leonardo have been presenting their own tax proposal to organizations and local governments.<\/p>\n

Perea told GV Wire on Monday that signature gathering for the \u201cFix Our Roads\u201d initiative has been limited to volunteers. He says he\u2019s \u201cconfident\u201d it will still qualify. He would not disclose how much money they have raised or how many signatures they have gathered.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of city councils have asked us for forms, we\u2019ve put them out throughout the county, there\u2019s people having their contacts gather signatures, we\u2019re going to advance,\u201d Perea said. \u201cGrassroots is challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kus told GV Wire in an email that no new committee has filed paperwork to support the Fix Our Roads initiative. If an existing committee was providing support for the measure, that might not show up until July\u2019s reporting deadline.<\/p>\n

Any donations will need to be disclosed.<\/p>\n

Considering that the Fresno County Board of Supervisors will have to approve any voter initiative by August, any group will be hard pressed to meet deadlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six weeks after announcing the plan to replace Fresno County\u2019s Measure C, organizers behind a new transportation tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[93,112,114,113],"class_list":["post-267900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-featured","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}