FRESNO, Calif. – A Fresno County sales tax measure is one step closer to reaching the November ballot. Organizers of the proposal known as “Better Roads, Safe Streets” submitted their petition to the Fresno County Elections office on Tuesday.
“We are submitting 32,000 signatures to qualify today, and the Registrar of Voters will have 30 business days to validate the signatures,” said Veronica Garibay, one of the measure’s organizers and the co-executive director of the non-profit Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.
The proposal was created to replace Measure C — the current a half-cent sales tax in Fresno County that funds transportation and road projects. Since it was first approved 40 years ago, Measure C has raised more than $2 billion for freeway expansions, bike lanes and road maintenance.
That measure is set to expire next year. Community groups and a handful of mayors put forward “Better Roads, Safe Streets” earlier this year as a successor to Measure C.
“It'll make our neighborhood streets and roads safer with better lighting, better intersections; make it easier for emergency services to get to you to help us reduce crashes and accidents; and make sure that all road users are safe in our community,” Garibay said. “And lastly, we are doing this without raising taxes.”
If approved, the measure will appear on the November ballot.
Earlier this year, Fresno County supervisors proposed a similar, competing sales tax measure known as “Fix Our Roads.”
Fresno County Registrar of Voters James Kus confirmed that the “Fix Our Roads” campaign filed its Notice of Intent but has not yet filed any further paperwork to advance the measure as of Tuesday afternoon. The proposal will need at least 22,000 verified signatures by early May in order to guarantee that it can qualify for the November ballot.
The two competing measures emerged after the committee in charge of renewing Measure C fell apart earlier this year when members couldn’t agree on its funding structure.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer – who helped organize “Better Roads, Safe Streets” – says he doesn’t think “Fix Our Roads” has the resources to qualify in time for the ballot.
“There would be no way that anyone else could generate the number of signatures necessary,” he said.
