Opposing groups were meeting on Fresno County road tax. Then the sessions stopped | Opinion

Collaboration is a good thing. Working together with respect and purpose is always better than working apart with malice and acrimony.

Collaboration is even better when different groups decide to cast aside their differences in search of common sense, common ground and common good.

The League of Women Voters of Fresno has been working with a coalition of community groups that came together to oppose the last Measure C ballot measure, not because we do not see the need for a county transportation tax, but largely because that measure was written without meaningful community involvement. Voters rejected that measure in November 2022, sending a clear message that politicians can’t make decisions for us without us.

Measure C is a local tax measure that was first passed in 1986. It was a 20-year measure that provided for a half-cent sales tax aimed at improving the overall quality of Fresno County’s transportation systems for all 15 cities plus the unincorporated and rural areas. Voters extended the tax for 20 more years in 2006, providing funding from 2007 to 2027. That tax has been responsible for generating billions of dollars in local spending on transportation projects. It was a 30-year renewal of that measure that failed on the ballot last year.

For the last few months, a handful of representatives of the Transportation for All (T4A) coalition, and representatives of the supporters of the last, failed ballot effort have been meeting to find a path to a new ballot measure that can still extend the existing tax. The small group was working toward a collaborative agreement on how to generate a new Measure C, one that might involve authentic community participation and better reflect the needs of Fresno County residents.

The league has always been committed to working in cooperation with others, and it seemed these meetings had the potential for everyone, community and elected officials, to have a voice. Unfortunately, the collaboration appears to have broken down.

Abruptly, some of the politically oriented members of the collaboration canceled a meeting scheduled for Nov. 20 and wanted to delay any further action until after the first of the year. Of course, this is disappointing and leaves the league and other coalition partners wondering why and how this happened.

The group had not ventured to discuss projects or the text of a ballot measure. The only proposal on the table was about how a ballot measure might evolve: what might be the appropriate roles of county residents, county staff and elected officials. Surely an expanded community voice in our transportation future would not only yield more success at the ballot box but also better serve our county needs.

Perhaps we are overly optimistic, but we remain committed to this collaboration. Our county needs the money that funding a renewal of Measure C would provide through varied and more desirable transportation. Fresno ranks at the bottom of U.S. cities for pedestrian and bicycle safety. Our county suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Without viable options, our dependence on single-vehicle transportation is not helping our climate, either.

We need future-oriented, environmentally sound transportation plans and the resources Measure C could provide to achieve them. We need safe paths to schools. We need attention to complete streets that include curbs and gutters, streetlights and trees that provide shade and help our air and road temperatures, not just more streets and highways.

We need repaired roads and better transportation options, especially for the small town and rural residents of our spread-out county. We need residents to express their needs and have the new measure incorporate them in projects that address those needs for the next decades.

We are saddened by what looks like a breakdown in this promising, inclusive collaboration. Our Transportation for All coalition remains committed and will work with anyone who wants to build a better Fresno County. We will be here. We hope they join us. We’re better together.