What Measure S is
Measure S is a citizen-initiative ordinance called the Fresno County Transportation Improvement Act. If a majority of voters approve it on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, it imposes a countywide half-cent (0.5%) retail sales tax for transportation starting July 1, 2027, the day after the current Measure C tax expires, and running for thirty years, through 2057.
Because it reached the ballot as a citizen initiative rather than a county referral, it needs only a simple majority to pass. Earlier Measure C renewals needed two-thirds.
- 0.5%
- sales tax rate
- Jul 1, 2027
- tax begins
- 2057
- tax ends
- 50% + 1
- votes needed
How much it collects
The county's fiscal impact statement estimates about $120 million in the first full year. Over thirty years the total is projected at roughly $7.4 billion, which means each percentage point of the allocation is worth about $74 million over the life of the tax. Actual revenue rises and falls with retail sales.
Where the money goes
The ordinance fixes the split for thirty years. Changing the percentages would require another vote of the people.
- 65% to local streets and roads (about $4.8 billion). Each of the county's 15 cities and the county itself receives $400,000 a year first; the rest is divided 80% by population and 20% by miles of maintained road.
- 25% to public transit (about $1.85 billion), including bus service and bike and pedestrian projects.
- 4% to regional streets and highways (about $296 million).
- 4% to access and innovation, including free fares for seniors, students, veterans and riders with disabilities (about $296 million).
- 1% to Fresno Yosemite International Airport (about $74 million).
- 1% to administration, including audits and the oversight committee (about $74 million).
The money would be received and allocated by the Fresno Council of Governments (Fresno COG). The Fresno County Transportation Authority, which has administered Measure C since 1986, would be eliminated.
How it got on the ballot
Supporters filed an initiative petition with 32,562 signatures; the county found 22,205 of them valid, enough to qualify. Campaign filings show the Yes committee paid nearly $490,000 to an out-of-state signature-gathering firm.
The Board of Supervisors voted to place the measure on the 2028 ballot. In August 2026 the Legislature rewrote AB 1923, a bill introduced in February as a distressed-hospital loan program, into an urgency statute requiring Fresno County to put the initiative on the November 2026 ballot. The county sued; on August 31, 2026 a superior court judge sided with the state, and the county said it would not appeal.
Why we are voting No
- It is a new thirty-year commitment, not an extension. Measure C ends in 2027 either way.
- The eleven-member oversight committee is appointed entirely by Fresno COG, the agency that controls the money, and it can only review and recommend.
- A quarter of the money, about $1.85 billion, is locked into transit for thirty years in a county where fewer than 1 in 100 workers commute by public transit.
- Fresno's street repair backlog grew from $505 million in early 2023 to about $1.2 billion by June 2025 under the current tax. Before signing up for thirty more years, voters deserve to know what changes.
Voting No does not end the current tax early. Measure C runs to June 30, 2027 as scheduled, and the county keeps the option of bringing a better-structured measure with real oversight to voters.