If the numbers hold true, the effort to put a transportation tax on the Fresno County November ballot will reach the necessary threshold of signatures Wednesday, says the county’s elections overseer.

However, that may not be the last hurdle for the Better Roads Safe Streets initiative as Fresno County Supervisors — who still need to authorize the petition — can request further studies, potentially pushing the approval vote past the final Aug. 7 deadline.

With “just under” 21,000 valid signatures identified for the Measure C replacement as of 5 p.m. Monday, Fresno County Clerk/Registrar of Voters James Kus told GV Wire he expects his office to  verify the minimum number today.

After some processing paperwork, Kus said he will request to add it to the board agenda for the Tuesday, July 14, meeting, which needs to be done by Friday.

While the vote to approve the petition is largely ministerial, board chair Garry Bredefeld said that supervisors can request county departments reports on how the measure would affect the county as a whole. Those could include how the half-cent tax measure would impact the General Plan, infrastructure funding, the ability to retain or attract businesses, employment rates, and traffic.

“We have two choices. We can just approve it to go on the ballot, or we can order a report … that looks at various issues related to the measure,” Bredefeld said.

Initiative Supporters Respond

Better Roads Safe Streets issued this statement to GV Wire in response to Bredefeld raising the possibility of the measure not being approved by the supervisors in time for the November election:

“The Better Roads, Safe Streets campaign has received notice from the Fresno County Elections Office that a sufficient number of submitted signatures have been counted and verified, to officially qualify the transportation improvement measure for the November 2026 ballot, reflecting the clear desire from voters who want to see this on the ballot.

“The Elections Office’s Certificate of Sufficiency will be presented to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors at their next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, July 14, as required by law.”

Study Request Would Push Approval Past Aug. 7 Deadline

If a majority of supervisors want the impact reports, the next meeting to review the findings would be Aug. 11. In order to qualify for the November ballot, the Measure C replacement needs to be approved by the supervisors by Aug. 7.

Any approval after Aug. 7 would require the half-cent tax to wait for the next general statewide election.

Getting qualified ahead of the July 14 board meeting was vital for Better Roads Safe Streets because many of the supervisors are critical of its funding allocations. The critics include Bredefeld, and fellow Supervisors Buddy Mendes and Nathan Magsig.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Brian Pacheco said that he wanted to further know the implications of the vote and how it would impact the county before he made a decision.

Neither Magsig nor Supervisor Luis Chavez responded to a request for comment before publication of this story.

Mendes wouldn’t say if he would support requesting the studies, but he said most people, including politicians, don’t understand the details of the plan.

“This should be called the con-job initiative,” Mendes said.

He added that Better Roads Safe Streets wouldn’t be facing this dilemma had it hired an outside firm to gather signatures rather than doing it in-house.

Kus’ office was forced to do a hand count of signatures after his staff found too many duplicate signatures during a random sample.

Community Groups Played Politics, Not Me: Bredefeld

Bredefeld said the community groups behind Better Roads Safe Streets have played political games since the Measure C replacement process began.

“It’s this group that’s been playing radical leftist politics, and it’s all in the measure that they’ve brought forward,” Bredefeld said. “So it is not me who’s played politics.”

Many leaders have criticized the Better Roads Safe Streets Initiative for not only the way the tax initiative divides up money — spending nearly 30% of tax dollars on alternative forms of transit — but also the way it was created.

In 2024, the Fresno Council of Governments voted to give many of the same community groups behind Better Roads Safe Streets a third of the votes on the advisory group that crafted the measure language they wanted to go before voters in November.

“The threats they made to the COG board, the majority of mayors who bent the knee out of fear of this group, … put a measure on the ballot that’s really focused on getting people out of their cars and riding bikes, scooters, or buses to work,” Bredefeld said.

What Happens If the Tax Proposal Is Delayed?

If the measure does not go before voters in November, that would end the 40-year-old tax at the end of this year.

Measure C has funded major infrastructure improvements such as Highway 180, Highway 168, and numerous other county roads and bridges. To date, Measure C has raised more than $2 billion and leveraged state and federal funds to invest $8 billion into Fresno County transportation improvements and support.

County officials largely turned to a third iteration of Measure C to fund road repair, which nearly all parties agreed needed to be done.

How much goes to roads versus buses, the rules behind repairing roads, and who would be in charge of the funding has divided elected officials and nonprofit leaders.

If voters don’t approve the Measure C replacement, the next chance to get a transportation tax on the ballot won’t occur until 2028.