DATE: December 9, 2025
TO: Board of Supervisors
SUBMITTED BY: Paul Nerland, County Administrative Officer
Steven E. White, Director, Department of Public Works and Planning
SUBJECT: Measure C Renewal Updates
RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):
TITLE
Receive presentation from staff regarding the Measure C renewal and potential citizen-led initiatives; and provide direction to staff as necessary.
REPORT
On November 20, 2025, Fresno Council of Governments (FCOG) Policy Board approved the funding proposal of the Measure C Steering Committee’s recommended expenditure categories, allocations, and a renewal term for Measure C. An alternative is being proposed and advanced by a separate group calling itself the Transportation Team. This item is countywide.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION(S):
Your Board could provide further direction to the Chair, or to Staff regarding this matter.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no Net County Cost associated with the proposed action. Fiscal impacts resulting from the renewal or lapse of Measure C will vary depending upon the ultimate direction of the measure, and whether it is approved by voters.
DISCUSSION:
Fresno County voters passed an extension to the Measure C sales tax program in November 2006, continuing a half-cent sales tax for transportation purposes. Much of the planning and implementation of the Measure C Program is done by FCOG staff, while the agency responsible for overseeing the implementation of Measure C is the Fresno County Transportation Authority (FCTA). The current Measure C is set to expire in June 2027.
At their November 20, 2025 meeting, the FCOG Policy Board, which is made up of one member of your Board as well as mayors from each of the cities, approved moving forward an Allocation Plan, attached as Exhibit A, that was recommended by the Measure C Steering Committee. The remainder of the Expenditure Plan, and the Implementation Guidelines, which are provided in draft form as Exhibit B, are scheduled to be considered at the Steering Committee’s December 4th meeting and will be considered by the Policy Board at its December 18th meeting. The recommended allocations in the Expenditure Plan substantially shifts resources away from regional projects and toward jurisdictional allocations for road maintenance and transit. In addition, it would allocate funds between local agencies on an 80% population/20% road miles allocation in comparison with the 75% population/25% road miles allocation in the current measure.
The renewal efforts led by the FCTA (and currently being delegated to FCOG staff) are governed by the Public Utilities Code § 142250 et seq. Your Board and the City Councils representing a majority of the cities and a majority of the incorporated population would need to approve the Expenditure Plan prior to its being adopted by the Transportation Authority. If the Expenditure Plan is approved, your Board would then need to approve placement of the Measure on the 2026 ballot. Once on the ballot, the Measure, would require a 2/3 majority vote to become law. The 2022 Measure failed to reach that hurdle, only receiving 58.2% yes votes (66.67% required).
Prior to the Policy Board meeting, a group of five transportation professionals, calling themselves the Transportation Team sent a letter and recommendations proposing a different funding allocation, attached as Exhibit C. The Transportation Team’s proposal recommends that funding be allocated to local jurisdictions on a 78/22 basis and that more funds be directed toward regional projects rather than transit. If this proposal or any other citizen-led proposal were to move forward with their own initiative(s), they would need to follow the procedures outlined in the California Elections Code, which include gathering more than 22,000 signatures. If the signatures are deemed valid via a statistical sampling, your Board would be required to put those initiatives before the voters, which would require a simple majority to become law. As of this writing, no groups have stated their intention to initiate such a petition to the County Clerk.
Regional and Transit Impacts
Regional projects include projects on the state highway system as well as major regional collector and arterial roads. From the current measure, the County received $78 million for the widening of Academy Avenue, Friant Road, and Mountain View Avenue as well as administering the construction of the $60 million Golden State Corridor project, the majority of which was located in the County. Under the existing Measure, 35.4% was allocated to regional projects, and a tiered list of projects was included in order of priority in the Expenditure Plan, as shown in Exhibit D. The Steering Committee/FCOG Policy Board’s proposed Allocation Plan allocates only 4% to regional projects and does not include a list of potential projects. In addition, the Steering Committee’s proposed Implementation Guidelines state that no more than 5% of an agency’s allocation be utilized for road expansions and capacity increasing projects, which would require the County to seek other funding sources for improving the regional road network that interconnects the cities and would virtually eliminate projects that increase capacity. In comparison, the Transportation Team’s proposal would allocate 17% of the Measure toward regional projects, including a 2% set aside for a category termed “New Technologies.” As of this writing, no implementation guidelines (or revisions to the Steering Committee’s) have been provided by the Transportation Team.
If Measure C were to expire, the budgetary implications would not only cause an immediate hole of nearly $10 million annually in the County’s Road Fund due to the loss of annual road maintenance dollars, but would also require the County to shoulder some of the passthrough costs from the Fresno County Rural Transit, as a greater share of the County’s annual Transportation Development Act funding would need to be allocated to fund unmet transit needs. The ripple effects of the loss of Measure C funds would likely cause an additional several million-dollar annual impact.
Staff will provide a presentation that will inform the Board of the latest updates to the renewal efforts.
REFERENCE MATERIAL:
BAI #11.1, November 18, 2025
BAI #1, August 12, 2022
BAI #13, July 12, 2022
ATTACHMENTS INCLUDED AND/OR ON FILE:
Exhibit A - Measure C Steering Committee High Priorities Proposal
Exhibit B - Steering Committee Draft Implementation Guidelines
Exhibit C - Transportation Team Proposal
Exhibit D - Measure C Funding Proposals Comparison
Presentation
CAO ANALYST:
Maria Valencia