At the April 22 meeting of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors (BOS), points of contention were delineated for the upcoming Measure C renewal vote, with truculent, implacable Vice Chair Garry Bredefeld (District 2) drawing the line in the sand.
Following the fiasco of the 2022 vote failure, the County has hired a consultant to manage the PR and steer the election toward a win for passage, with the majority of the supervisors expressing a preference for allocating most Measure C revenue toward road expansion and repair and minimizing spending for public transportation.
Not mentioned at this meeting, however, was the integration of community groups that favor more spending on public transportation into a single advocacy group called Transportation for All (T4A), who were not represented at this meeting. Their preferences were rejected in the previous negotiations, leading to the failure of the 2022 renewal.
If the County government and community group factions don’t manage to find common ground and merge, there is a possibility that two separate measures could be on the ballot in 2026. But the BOS did not so much as acknowledge any such split.
Measure C, a half-cent sales tax first approved by Fresno County voters in 1986 and renewed in 2006 (it must be renewed by voters every 20 years; the 2022 vote was an attempt at early renewal), has been a cornerstone of the county’s transportation infrastructure funding. Its purpose is to fund transportation projects across the county, including in all its 15 cities.
Over the past three decades, revenue generated by the tax has facilitated the construction and maintenance of highways, roads and public transit systems throughout the county. Notably, Measure C funds have been instrumental in expanding major freeways including Highways 41, 168 and 180.
The measure has also enabled the County to secure matching funds from state and federal sources, amplifying its impact. As the current iteration of Measure C approaches its expiration in 2027, the County faces a significant funding gap for transportation projects and a backlog of street repairs.
Without renewal, essential services such as road repairs, transit operations and infrastructure upgrades could be jeopardized, underscoring the County’s reliance on this local funding mechanism to maintain and enhance its transportation network.
Voters were given an early chance in 2022 for the next scheduled renewal. It was defeated, but with the 2026 election, there is still time to renew it before it expires. Widespread anxiety prevails over the chance that it might fail again, which would result in a crushing loss of funding for transportation projects, including road maintenance.
The defeat of Measure C in 2022 was caused by outrage over the Fresno County Transportation Authority’s (FCTA’s) proposed budgeting of Measure C funds, most of which was to have been spent on repairing roads damaged by a steep upsurge (beginning after the early 2000s) in use by huge trucks supporting industrial agriculture, specifically production of nuts and other lucrative crops, while eliminating farmworker carpool programs, eliminating sidewalks for school kids, cutting public transportation by 40% and cutting bike lanes by 66%.
Efforts to charge maintenance fees to commercial ag or trucking companies heavily using and thus damaging the roads have been unsuccessful. So, in 2022, the FCTA’s aim was to have county residents pay for repairing the road damage via the Measure C sales tax, a purpose the tax was not designed for.
Opposition to the FCTA plan in 2022 was widespread across the political spectrum, despite which proponents naively presumed that there would be sufficient votes in favor of repaving roads over other concerns, but they miscalculated. Hence, officials from the County and its 15 cities are now working intently on strategies to ensure the success of Measure C in the next election.
Kendall Flint, a transportation consultant contracted by the County, reviewed the Measure C renewal update plan for the BOS at its April 22 meeting. Flint explained that the strategy of the Measure C renewal committee is to engage members of the public and special interest groups, plus representatives of transit and municipal agencies to make recommendations that will work their way up through the Fresno County Council of Governments (COG), the FCTA and city councils, among others, to the BOS. Members of the public can weigh in with suggestions at measurec2026.com/.
Flint said that meetings with mayors, city managers and local agencies had been held in March. She noted that Measure C has brought $10 billion to the Fresno area, including $2 billion in sales tax revenue and another $8 billion in matching state and federal funds. However, she did not address the possibility of loss of federal money, given the current chaos perpetrated by the Trump administration.
Flint said that public outreach efforts will begin in May, with steering committee meetings and focus groups. She emphasized that as of April 1, 2027, the current measure will expire, and if not renewed by voters in November 2026, the effects will be “devastating.”
Both BOS Chair Buddy Mendes (District 4) and Bredefeld are on the board of the FCTA, the public agency responsible for managing the revenue generated by Measure C.
Bredefeld’s mind was made up. He expressed the obdurate opinion that “streets and roads are priority” and noted, remarkably, that he had “never heard once from anyone about bicycles or buses.” He “is not going to support” anything other than “streets and roads,” a phrase he repeated multiple times. He also didn’t like terms such as “environmental justice” because people who use those have a “political agenda.”
Cynically blaming voters who opposed cuts to sidewalks, public transportation and bike lanes for Measure C’s failure in 2022, Bredefeld warned that it will fail again “if we pander to people who don’t care about getting it passed.”
Despite widespread concern about air pollution, truck-induced road damage and the need for beefed-up public transit, Bredefeld seemed unwilling or unable to comprehend these objections. Instead, he placed the blame squarely on community members who resisted his exclusionary, roads-only approach—an approach that all but guarantees the continued cycle of damage and costly repairs.
Bredefeld’s imperious and bullying posture portends a fight down the road.
Throughout the discussion, no mention was made by anyone of T4A, the coalition of environmental and public transportation advocacy groups that banded together after their efforts and input were rebuffed by County officials in 2022.
Grinning and twisting a pencil, Mendes remarked that deferred maintenance for county roads was in the range of more than half a billion dollars, though he did not acknowledge that industrial ag trucking was the source of the damage; neither, of course, did Bredefeld.
Flint touted her success with the passage of similar measures in other California counties where street and road maintenance was a priority, for example, in Madera, where a measure with 80% of funding was allocated for that purpose. She noted one loss, in San Luis Obispo, by 400 votes.
The “trick,” she says, is to document the “will of the people,” with results from focus groups and polling. Of the “transit community,” she said, about 80% are dependent on public transportation, particularly so for ag workers.
Though Flint did not challenge any of Bredefeld’s claims, she gave the impression that concerns other than patching streets damaged by heavy trucking could be part of the negotiations. But her equivocations raised questions: Describing the divide between roads (for private cars and commercial trucks) and public transit, she said that it’s not an “either/or,” it’s an “and.” Nevertheless, she also said that the measure will be “skewed” to street maintenance.
Supervisor Luis Chavez (District 3) noted that pedestrian deaths have risen because the road infrastructure has not kept up with population growth. Noting that “grassroots outreach” will be key, he encouraged Flint to “reach out” to residents of southeast Fresno, where there has been a significant recent increase in population.
Chavez said quietly, but definitively, that his support for Measure C will depend on pedestrian safety features and balance of interests, “not just roads.” One of two Democrats on the BOS, along with Supervisor Brian Pacheco (District 1), Chavez was the only supervisor who expressed support for something other than road repair.
Supervisor Nathan Magsig (District 5), careful to qualify his love of cycling so as not to offend Bredefeld, said that “as a bike rider,” he was interested only in “good pavement,” not dedicated bike lanes. Because bike-lane infrastructure is “costly to maintain,” he “echoes” Bredefeld regarding “streets and roads.” What about safety? He did not point out that “good pavement” is also costly to maintain.
Pacheco, apparently no friend to advocates of public transportation, nor a supporter of those questioning environmental and health effects of road-widening projects that will increase diesel traffic in heavily populated areas, said that Bredefeld “hit it” with the assertion that at least 80% of Measure C funds should go to road building and maintenance.
In response to a question from Mendes, Flint said she would keep the BOS apprised of progress over the summer. Mendes seized the opportunity to grandstand about previous FCTA meetings he’d participated in, the last of which was “gang warfare,” he said, grinning as though pleased with his own turn of phrase.
Flint concluded by noting that to be successful, “all of us” must be focused on “civility, process and just the facts.”
This BOS meeting, as a prelude to the 2026 Measure C vote, revealed that divisions remain over how Fresno County’s transportation funds should be spent. With Bredefeld entrenched in his “roads-only” stance and a growing coalition of community groups demanding a more equitable and sustainable course, the County faces a critical juncture.
Whether Measure C is renewed might hinge on the ability of stakeholders to reach consensus—or at least compromise—on how to balance infrastructure needs with environmental justice, pedestrian safety and access to public transit. Without that, the measure could again go down in defeat, with consequences that would affect every resident of Fresno County.
