Transportation Experts Unveil Fresno County 20-Year Half-Cent Fix Our Roads Plan

A coalition of Fresno County elected officials, labor leaders and veteran transportation planners publicly unveiled the Fix Our Roads Fresno County Initiative on Feb. 17, 2026, proposing a 20-year, half-cent sales tax to replace the decades-old Measure C and fund road repairs and public transit. Presenters at the rollout included Clovis Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce, former Fresno County Supervisor Henry Perea, Reedley Mayor Matthew Tuttle and Fresno Building Trades Council chief Chuck Riojas.

The proposal’s revenue split, as described in reporting by Sjvsun, would dedicate 82 percent of proceeds to road repair and 18 percent to public transportation; Sjvsun explicitly ties the 18 percent to $702 million. Fix Our Roads’ road allocation is further subdivided in Sjvsun’s account: 50 percent for direct road repair, 16 percent for flexible city funding and 16 percent for major streets, highways and congestion relief. The plan’s architects include Tony Boren, formerly head of the Fresno Council of Governments; Mike Leonardo, former Fresno County Transportation Authority chief; Malcolm Dougherty, former Caltrans director; and Diana Gomez, former Caltrans District 6 director.

Fix Our Roads backers framed the measure as a more flexible funding stream that would maintain the same length and tax rate as prior local measures - a 20-year, half-cent sales tax - and said it would invest in public transit while exploring consolidation of Fresno County’s three transit agencies “for greater efficiency,” according to Sjvsun’s account of the rollout. The coalition described itself as including local elected officials, labor representatives and transportation experts.

Campaign leaders positioned the Fix Our Roads proposal against a competing measure, the Fresno County Transportation Improvement Act, which Sjvsun reports was introduced by social justice activists and the Central Valley Community Foundation. The FCTIA’s allocation breakdown reported by Sjvsun is 65 percent to road repair, 25 percent to public transportation, 4 percent to public transportation innovation, 4 percent to regional projects, 1 percent to airports and 1 percent to tax administration. Former Supervisor Henry Perea warned of governance changes in the rival plan, saying, “If you’re looking for a red flag, you’ll find it when you take away a key financial guardrail.”

Campaign messaging and social posts contain conflicting dollar totals that require verification. An Instagram post circulating after the announcement stated, “The plan sets aside 65% of those revenues, or about $4.8 billion, to fixing local roads, and 25%, or $1.8 billion, toward public transit,” figures that numerically match the FCTIA percentages reported by Sjvsun but do not name a plan in the post excerpt. Sjvsun’s $702 million figure tied to Fix Our Roads’ 18 percent implies a roughly $3.9 billion 20-year take, while the Instagram numbers imply a roughly $7.2 billion to $7.4 billion total; those discrepancies should be clarified by campaign fiscal analyses or independent estimates.

With both measures potentially headed toward the November ballot, the coming weeks will require campaign disclosures, official revenue projections and responses from the Central Valley Community Foundation and Fix Our Roads organizers to resolve allocation and oversight questions involving the Fresno County Transportation Authority and the Fresno Council of Governments.