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California drivers already pay the highest gas tax and car tax in the nation. Now Sacramento Democrats want to charge them for every mile they drive too!
Under the plan, drivers would be charged six to nine cents for every mile they drive, on top of the gas tax and car tax they already pay. All cars would be required to have electronic mileage trackers installed or be taken in annually by drivers for mileage inspections. Drivers would then be sent a tax bill for the Mileage Tax they owe.
For the average Californian driving 15,000 miles a year, a six cent-per-mile Mileage Tax works out to $900 annually - or the equivalent of raising the gas tax itself by 87 cents per gallon!
"Because of the extreme policies of Democrats in Sacramento, California has the highest cost of living in the nation - and now the Democrats want to make it worse by imposing a crazy new Mileage Tax on all drivers," CA State Rep. Carl DeMaio says.
DeMaio says the Mileage Tax won't fix roads and is just another money grab by politicians who continue to engage in wasteful spending and raids on road funds.
"We already pay a gas tax and a car tax for roads that are falling apart, and that money has been diverted elsewhere," DeMaio warns.
Worse, DeMaio warns the Mileage Tax will hit working families the hardest as studies show low and middle income families drive more because they are forced to find housing farther away from job centers due to housing costs.
The Mileage Tax proposal being pushed by Democrats has been a long time in the making. In 2018 the Democrats slid a Mileage Tax pilot project into SB 1 - the notorious bill that spiked the gas tax, doubled the car tax, and allowed politicians to raid road funds to subsidize transit projects rather than expand highways.
Then in 2021, Democrats in San Diego County tried to impose a county-level Mileage Tax. Public backlash was fierce enough that voters recalled the official who pushed it, and the county dropped the idea. Sacramento is now pursuing its own statewide version instead.
DeMaio said Democrats have no intention of letting voters weigh in directly on whether a Mileage Tax is imposed on them.
"Democrats aren't going to give us a chance to vote on this at the ballot box, because they know voters would vote it down," DeMaio explained.
"All they need is two-thirds of the state legislature to impose a Mileage Tax - but if we can break the supermajority in the 2026 midterm election, we can stop the mileage tax and any other crazy tax they are peddling," DeMaio says.
DeMaio says he's on a mission to block the Mileage Tax by targeting key races for the State Legislature that will determine whether Democrats will have the two-thirds votes they need to impose it.
Reform California has spent the past year recruiting and endorsing only state assembly and senate candidates who have pledged to vote against the mileage tax. They are also recruiting volunteers and raising resources in target seats where those candidates are running.
"Let me be clear: the fate of the Mileage Tax is on the ballot this November in the form of who's running for state assembly and state senate in our target seats," DeMaio adds.
"Vote, and use the Reform California Plain English Voter Guide to do it," DeMaio said. "Then go knock on your neighbors' doors and tell them to vote too. If you only want to talk to Republicans, we'll even give you a list, God forbid you knock on a Democrat's door," DeMaio adds.
"Once this election is over, the supermajority either holds or it doesn't," DeMaio said. "If it holds, they'll have the votes to pass this tax, and every other tax hike they've been sitting on. If it breaks, none of it gets through," DeMaio concludes.
That's exactly why every vote in these target races matters this November.
Go to StopTheMileageTax.org to sign the petition and share it with everyone you know.
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