People are panicking about Californiaโs โgas mileage tax.โ Weโre nowhere close
California legislators sparked worry and confusion on social media this week over a โgas mileage taxโ โ but the bill now before the state Senate would only require a report.
Assembly Bill 1421 seeks to identify a possible solution to declining gas tax revenues as more drivers switch to electric vehicles, but any actual effect on residents is far from materializing. The bill passed on the Assembly floor Jan. 29; if approved by the Senate and signed into law, it would require the California Transportation Commission to submit a report examining the particulars of road user charges and mileage fees โ and any equity concerns for low-income drivers โ by Jan. 1, 2027.
Republicans in the Assembly balked at the bill.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, said any mileage tax would be โa sucker-punch to working-class Californians.โ He referenced an analysis by the San Diego Association of Governments of a mileage-based fee, which proposed to charge local drivers 4 cents per mile.
DeMaio told his Assembly colleagues that, based on that now-defunct plan, the cost could amount to โ$900 to $1,200 per driverโ annually for average mileage, though with a 4-cent-per-mile fee, a person would have to drive roughly 30,000 miles to rack up $1,200.
Based on average annual mileage โ 13,476 miles in 2022, according to the Federal Highway Administration โ and a 4-cent fee, that figure would be closer to $539 a year. The group that drives the most on average โ men ages 35 to 54, who traveled close to 19,000 miles annually โ would pay about $754 a year.
The current bill continues more than a decade of deliberations over what to do as gas tax revenues decline: The Legislature created the Road Usage Charge Technical Advisory Committee in 2014, and a pilot study was completed in 2017.
California has the highest gas taxes among the 50 states, with a current excise tax of 61.2 cents per gallon, in addition to the stateโs 2.25% sales tax. Over the last century, gas taxes have been the primary source of funding for roads and transportation across the U.S. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, the Legislature estimated that the gas excise tax made up $7.8 billion of transportation funds. As people switch to electric vehicles, the Legislative Analystโs Office has projected that revenue could drop as much as $4.4 billion a year by 2033.
In anticipation of that, the Legislature has been exploring alternatives to the gas tax aimed at ensuring drivers of electric vehicles contribute to the repair and maintenance of the roads all residents use. A โroad user charge,โ or a mileage-based fee system, has emerged as the leading concept to replace that lost source of revenue.
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 12:56 PM.
