{"id":439046,"date":"2026-08-21T04:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439046\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T04:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T04:20:18","slug":"fresno-county-fights-newsoms-transportation-tax-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/439046\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County fights Newsom\u2019s transportation tax in court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s push to force a controversial Fresno County transportation tax<\/a> onto the November ballot has hit another legal roadblock after the county challenged a second judge in the case.<\/p>\n

The battle comes as Fresno County fights Sacramento over a half-cent sales tax <\/a>that would raise money for roads and other transportation projects.<\/p>\n

The latest fight follows the state\u2019s successful effort to remove Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen from the case.<\/p>\n

Nathan Magsig, center, of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors. TNS<\/p>\n

Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion<\/a> Aug. 14 seeking Whalen\u2019s disqualification, claiming the state and its lawyers believed the judge was prejudiced against California.<\/p>\n

Whalen previously served on the Clovis City Council.<\/p>\n

After he was removed, Judge Virna Santos was assigned to the case.<\/p>\n

Fresno County then challenged Santos\u2019 appointment, according to Supervisor Nathan Magsig.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudge Whalen was challenged by the state and removed. There was another judge that was assigned. The county of Fresno is disputing the most recent judge who was assigned,\u201d Magsig said.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s signature on the proposed tax effectively forced the issue back onto the November ballot. Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cA few years ago, that judge actually worked directly for one of the named individuals in our lawsuit,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Now the county is waiting for the Superior Court to assign yet another judge.<\/p>\n

The timing could be critical.<\/p>\n

Fresno County sued California, the Fresno County Clerk and supporters of the Better Roads, Safe Streets campaign after Newsom signed AB 1923 earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The legislation requires Fresno County to put the citizen-backed transportation measure on the November ballot.<\/p>\n

The measure would create a half-cent sales tax for roads and other transportation needs.<\/p>\n

Three Fresno County supervisors had voted to order a 30-day review of the citizen-backed initiative, arguing that state election law allowed them to do so.<\/p>\n

An aerial view of downtown Sacramento.) Marcus \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s signature on AB 1923 effectively forced the issue back onto the November ballot.<\/p>\n

Fresno County is now racing against a Sept. 9 ballot-printing deadline as the legal fight over Sacramento\u2019s intervention continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that, when we do have that final judge in place that the concerns that the county has and then, of course, the rebuttals from the state will all be heard before that September 9th deadline,\u201d Magsig said.<\/p>\n

The fight comes as California Democrats continue looking for ways to replace declining gas tax revenue while the state faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit and more drivers switch to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n

Democratic lawmakers have also been exploring mileage-based taxes.<\/p>\n

State legislators advanced Democrat Lori Wilson\u2019s AB 1421, which would direct the California Transportation Commission and California Transportation Agency to continue studying mileage-based tax options rather than immediately imposing one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s push to force a controversial Fresno County transportation tax onto the November ballot has hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[7,112,114,113,756,457,4182,1694,3586],"class_list":["post-439046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-california","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-gas","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-metro","tag-taxes","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439046","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=439046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}