Update: Voters have decided on Measure T in Madera County. Did they renew the sales tax?
It’s official: Madera County voters have decided to approve the highly-debated renewal proposal for Measure T, a 0.5% sales tax that funds transportation projects. As a citizen initiative, it required only a simple majority of 50% plus one vote to pass.
A Wednesday afternoon vote count update in Madera County showed 26,571 voters, or 52.33%, said “yes” to Measure T, while 24,201 voters, or 47.67%, said “no.” That means the “no” on Measure T side is trailing by 2,370 votes, but only 1,710 ballots were still unprocessed in Madera County as of Thursday morning.
In the city of Madera, updated results do not show much of a percentage change for the top two of four candidates in the mayoral race, with District 1 City Councilmember Cece Gallegos leading incumbent Santos Garcia by about 2.4 percentage points.
In District 4, incumbent City Councilmember Anita Evans continues to hold a strong lead in her re-election bid against challenger Derek Robinson.
In District 6, after trailing for most of the past week in what seemed a tight race, incumbent City Councilmember Artemio Villegas has extended his lead against challenger John Jasper.
These races could result in a power shift on a City Council that has been criticized as divided and lacking in teamwork by some candidates in this election. The winners will be tasked with making decisions on large residential and commercial projects expected to begin materializing in the next few years. The results in the attempt to renew Measure T could also dramatically impact growth county-wide, proponents and opponents agree.
Here’s what these elections look like as of Wednesday. The next update by the Madera County Clerk-Recorder’s office will be by 5 p.m. Friday.
Measure T
Some version of a 0.5% sales tax that funds transportation projects has been in place in Madera County for decades. The current Measure T was approved in 2006 and expires in 2027. A renewal attempt failed in 2022, when 52% of voters chose to approve the measure, but it required a supermajority approval of 66% to pass.
This year, as a draft of Measure T moved through local government, enough county residents signed a petition to place Measure T on the ballot as a citizen initiative. This initiative is almost identical to the one drafted as a government initiative, which was created after several months of work with citizens steering committees consisting of members from across the county.
Documents for the Measure T renewal proposal say the 0.5% sales tax is expected to generate $22 million annually for a total of $440 million in the next 20 years. Here is the proposal’s investment plan for the anticipated revenue:
▪ Local streets and roads: 80%, or $352 million, with 10% set aside for disadvantaged communities.
▪ Regional projects: 14.5%, or $63.8 million.
▪ Transit: 4%, or $17.6 million
▪ Administrative expense cap: 1.5%, or $6.6 million
Proponents said this investment plan reflects what county residents want: less for regional projects and more for local streets and roads. They said it also addresses the complaints made during the failed 2022 renewal attempt, which tried to make Measure T permanent rather than including an expiration date. Opponents said the language in the proposed ordinance is not strong enough to keep elected officials from taking money from the local streets and roads fund and assigning it to regional projects. They called for a restructuring of the Madera County Transportation Authority, which is completely composed of elected officials and administers Measure T.
The county’s Measure T consultant said that the type of restructuring Measure T’s opponents wanted was not viable, and she disagreed with the claims that the language in the proposed ordinance was drafted without citizens’ input.
Madera mayoral race
Gallegos, the District 1 Madera councilmember, continues to hold a slight lead over Garcia, the incumbent mayor, in the city’s mayoral race. The two other candidates in the race, government revenue consultant Wayne Padilla and Madera Unified School Board President Lucy Salazar, have remained in third and fourth place, respectively, since the first results were reported on Election Night.
As of 3:32 p.m. Wednesday, Gallegos had 5,124 votes, or 35.48%, while Garcia had 4,781 votes, or 33.10%. The gap between the two has been tight since Election Night and has only widened by about half of a percentage point since Friday afternoon. On Wednesday, Padilla had 2,614 votes, or 18.09%, while Salazar had 1,924 votes, or 13.32%.
Gallegos and Garcia have served together on the City Council since 2018, when Garcia was first elected as a councilmember. Gallegos was elected to the council in 2016, making her the longest-serving current member.
Both campaigned on the improvement to the city’s budget during their concurrent time in office, noting that just years before Madera operated on deficits and paid its past city manager hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. They have also touted the city’s planned residential growth — a lot of it will be in Gallegos’ District 1, where a master-planned community could produce 10,000 homes in the future.
Garcia took a shot at Gallegos during his campaign, noting that since she served on the city council since 2016, she was also a part of the previous council that approved deficits and exorbitant pay for department heads. Gallegos, who unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Madera County Board of Supervisors in March, has confidently said she is ready to lead the city council as its most experienced member.
District 4 Madera City Council race
Wednesday afternoon’s results indicate Evans, the District 4 Madera City Councilmember, is trending comfortably toward re-election against challenger Robinson. Their contest is a rematch from 2020, when Evans first won the District 4 seat from Robinson, who had served as a city councilmember for eight years at the time. Evans won that race with an overwhelming 75% of the vote.
As of 3:32 p.m. Wednesday, Evans had 836 votes, or 62.48%, while Robinson had 502 votes, or 37.52%. Evans has held onto more than 60% of the vote, and Robinson to less than 40% of the vote, since the first results were reported on Election Night.
Evans is known in Madera as an active community member who has helped organize Black History Month and Juneteenth events. She campaigned on the accomplishment of road upgrades and traffic safety projects in District 4, and also noted the improvement of the Fresno River, a place where homeless people often camp, which she said is much cleaner than it was four years ago.
Robinson is a retired U.S. Army veteran and former juvenile hall counselor. During his campaign, he said the current council is failing Madera’s citizens. He criticized what he said was a misplaced interest in filling the downtown area with cannabis stores. Instead, Robinson said, the city should have paid more attention to upgrading its infrastructure and to Madera Community Hospital. The hospital has been closed for nearly two years but is expected to reopen soon.
Geographically, District 4 is the city’s smallest but also its most densely-populated. The district stretches north to Ellis Street, west to the Pan-American Park area, south to the Fresno River and east to Raymond Road. Multiple large apartment complexes are included in District 4, including the Madera Garden, Lakewood Terrace, Bridgeview, Creekside, Lakeland and Valley Vista communities.
District 6 Madera City Council race
Villegas, the incumbent District 6 councilmember, has extended his lead against challenger Jasper in what has been an extremely close race. Since Election Night, updates have shown no more than a few dozen votes separated the two candidates.
After taking an early but small lead, Jasper was confident he would unseat Villegas in District 6. He held onto that lead until Friday, when an update put Villegas ahead of Jasper, but only by 54 votes, or 3.2%.
As of 3:32 p.m. Wednesday, Villegas had 967 votes, or 52.4%, and Jasper had 879 votes, or 47.6%. This means Villegas now leads Jasper by 88 votes, or 4.8%.
District 6 encompasses the southeastern part of the city of Madera, and it is one of the districts slated for large residential growth. A large project could add almost 1,000 homes within the district’s current boundaries just west of Highway 99. It’s a project that Jasper said has concerned residents of his own neighborhood, which is adjacent to the site of future construction.
Jasper is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and law enforcement officer. He campaigned providing better retention incentives to the city’s police officers and other public safety employees. He also touted his experience as a local SEIU union leader, saying it has prepared him find the best outcomes for city employees. Jasper said he is concerned that irresponsible development could further strain the city’s limited resources.
Villegas is a retired farmworker who was elected to the Madera City Council in District 6 in 2020. Like other current councilmembers, he said the city has planned carefully and is ready for the residential growth it is slated to see over the next decade. He campaigned on the relate-ability of his working class background and on transportation assistance to the farmworkers who live in Madera. Villegas touted traffic safety improvements set for construction near schools in District 6, as well improvements recently made to public parks in the district.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 8:31 AM.
