{"id":430285,"date":"2026-08-12T01:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430285\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T01:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T01:32:12","slug":"fresno-county-supervisors-move-to-sue-state-over-ab-1923-as-tax-measure-heads-to-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430285\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County supervisors move to sue state over AB 1923, as tax measure heads to ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fight over a proposed Fresno County transportation tax measure is headed to court after the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to push the measure to the March 2028 ballot, a move that now does not prevent it from appearing on the November 2026 ballot under a new state law.<\/p>\n

The 3-2 vote came after county supervisors reviewed the results of a roughly $100,000, 500-page study of the \u201cBetter Roads, Safe Streets\u201d initiative.<\/p>\n

The study was ordered by the board, causing the measure to miss the deadline to qualify for this year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

That set the stage for Assembly Bill 1923, a new state law requiring Fresno County to place the initiative on the November 2026 ballot if it had qualified as of July 8.<\/p>\n

Fresno County Clerk James Kus told supervisors Tuesday that the state law overrides the board\u2019s decision. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have been given direction from the state, through the state via Assembly Bill 1923, to continue to place any initiative found in the County of Fresno, sufficient as of July 8th of 2026 on the November 2026 ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kus said the measure will be placed on the November ballot, but he still needs a formal resolution from the Board of Supervisors to complete the process and obtain the information needed for the ballot question and county voter information guide.<\/p>\n

Supervisor Garry Bredefeld asked Kus what would happen if the board passed a resolution putting the measure on the March 2028 ballot.<\/p>\n

Kus responded that he would use those materials to place the initiative on the November 2026 ballot.<\/p>\n

With the board\u2019s vote unable to stop the measure from appearing on the November ballot under AB 1923, county leaders opposing the measure are turning to the courts.<\/p>\n

Supervisors Garry Bredefeld, Nathan Magsig and Buddy Mendes are now preparing to challenge the state law. <\/p>\n

“We think it’s unconstitutional and we’ve also filed a suit to make sure that it goes on the March 2028 ballot. That’s following the state election law and guidelines,” he said. <\/p>\n

As part of FOX26’s accountability question of the day, we asked Bredefeld, “We have people saying, hey, we got the study already. Why don’t we just put it on the ballot and leave it up to the voters?”<\/p>\n

He responded, “Well, we followed the guidelines. I mean, it’s the state guidelines. They don’t like it. They can change the guidelines. But what they did was they didn’t like the fact that we followed their guidelines, so they changed the law, created a whole new law targeting Fresno County residents. That’s unacceptable and that’s why we’re filing a lawsuit.”<\/p>\n

Supervisor Luis Chavez was one of two supervisors who voted against pursuing the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re using taxpayer dollars to initiate these lawsuits. I don’t think it’s a good use of our taxpayers to be suing the state of California or citizens or our own county clerk. I think we should let democracy be democracy and let people vote,” he said. <\/p>\n

FOX26 News was told the cost of the study itself was around $100,000. <\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno County supervisors move to sue state over AB 1923, as tax measure heads to ballot. (Photo: FOX26)<\/p>\n

During the meeting, it was discussed that two committees will prepare arguments for and against the measure. Supervisor Luis Chavez will lead one, while Supervisor Garry Bredefeld leads the other.<\/p>\n

Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a co-author of AB 1923, responded to the supervisors\u2019 decision shortly after Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

She said, “Today, the simple majority of Fresno County’s Board of Supervisors once again attempted to delay the people’s right to vote by seeking to push this initiative to 2028-yet another attempt to circumvent the will of the voters. Furthermore, the initiation of litigation is further proof that the County Board will do anything it can to suppress the vote. This was never about an economic study, this was about predetermining the outcome of the successor Measure C.”<\/p>\n

\"Fresno<\/p>\n

Fresno County supervisors move to sue state over AB 1923, as tax measure heads to ballot. (Photo: Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria)<\/p>\n

Reaction also poured in from the campaign manager behind the \u201cBetter Roads, Safe Streets\u201d initiative. <\/p>\n

Campaign manager Andy Levine credited Soria and State Senator Anna Caballero with helping ensure voters will have an opportunity to decide the measure.<\/p>\n

Levine said the lawmakers heard concerns from 11 Fresno County mayors and supporters who gathered roughly 32,000 signatures for the initiative.<\/p>\n

He said the campaign is now focused on educating voters about the measure rather than the county\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Levine declined to comment directly on the county’s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

“Anything else, honestly at this point, is noise, it’s a distraction,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fight over a proposed Fresno County transportation tax measure is headed to court after the Board of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-430285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430285","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=430285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}