Getting Fresno County's Measure C extension on the ballot was the easy part -- though it may not have always seemed so to the two dozen community members who spent more than a year crafting the spending plan for transportation improvements.
The biggest obstacle now, of course, is the onerous two-thirds majority required for such tax measures. There is always a significant fraction of the electorate who believe they should get all the services they want without having to pay for them, and routinely vote against any tax, for any purpose. It takes two voters with a modicum of vision to overcome a single such shortsighted voter.
The need to extend Measure C is clear. The new spending plan shifts a lot of money from huge freeway projects to other needs, such as mass transit -- cleaner and more frequent buses, for instance -- and rail consolidation in Fresno. A lot of new money will be available for repair and maintenance of local streets and roads throughout the county.
The original Measure C, passed in 1986, kept Fresno County from transportation collapse. With the growth anticipated in the near future, we need this extension just to keep running in place.
There doesn't seem to be any significant opposition this time, other than the usual anti-tax gadflys. But as you said, some people will vote against any tax (even an extension of an existing tax), no matter how reasonable or necessary it may be.
This version of Measure C isn't perfect, but it seems to present a reasonable compromise between highways and transit, and between urban and rural.