California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra says he would consider charging drivers for every mile they travel. opening a new front in the state's long-running debate over how to pay for its roads as gas-tax revenue shrinks. In an interview reported this week, the Democrat said "everything should be on the table" when asked whether he would back a mileage-based tax as governor, arguing that drivers of electric vehicles who buy no gasoline should still help pay for road repairs.
What Becerra Actually Said
Becerra made the remarks in an interview with KCRA's Ashley Zavala, a clip of which Zavala posted on October 29. Asked directly whether he would support a mileage-based tax as governor, Becerra did not propose a specific rate or a finished plan. Instead, he framed the idea as one option among several for funding road and bridge maintenance.
"Our roads aren't maintained just by some magic wand. We have to pay for it," Becerra said. "Do I want to tax people more than necessary? No. Should we pay a gas tax? Yes. Should people who drive electric vehicles, who don't need gas, pay for those roads to be repaired as well? Absolutely."
The distinction matters. Becerra stopped short of pledging to impose a per-mile charge, saying only that he would consider one. But in a governor's race where taxes and the cost of living are central issues, even entertaining the idea was enough to ignite a political firestorm within hours, with Republican rivals seizing on the clip to warn voters about a new driving tax.
Becerra, a former California attorney general and former U.S. health secretary under President Joe Biden, is running to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom. He spoke at a campaign event in Oakland on October 27, days before the interview drew national attention. In the same KCRA interview, according to the station, Becerra also said he is preparing a new tax on the state's wealthiest residents, would seriously consider new fees for drivers and corporations, and would likely remove the current chief executive of the state's troubled high-speed rail project if elected.
Why California Is Talking About a Mileage Fee
California's road funding problem is structural, and it predates this campaign. The state has long paid for highway and road maintenance largely through taxes on gasoline. As cars have become more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles have grown more common, that revenue base has eroded: drivers of electric cars use the same roads but pay nothing at the pump.
State officials are now wrapping up a study of whether to replace the traditional gas tax with a vehicle-miles-traveled fee, a charge based on how far a person drives rather than how much fuel they burn. Supporters of the concept argue it is fairer, because it ties payment directly to road use. A driver who logs few miles would pay little, while a heavy road user would pay more, regardless of whether the vehicle runs on gasoline, electricity, or anything else.
Critics counter that a mileage fee would land hardest on the Californians who can least afford it: workers with long commutes, people priced out of housing near job centers, and rural residents who have no public transit alternative. According to reports on the interview, that cost-of-living concern is already shaping the political reaction, in a state where voters are sensitive to any new charge on top of already high fuel prices, housing costs, and taxes.
What the State Has Already Studied
The mileage-fee idea is not new in Sacramento, and no Californian is being charged per mile today. The state has been studying alternatives to the gas tax since 2014, running pilot programs since 2016 that tested ways to measure mileage, including odometer reporting and devices that do not use GPS tracking.
In January 2026, the California Assembly passed Assembly Bill 1421, which continues that study rather than creating a tax. The bill extends the Road Usage Charge Technical Advisory Committee and directs the California Transportation Commission to compile the research into a full report for lawmakers by January 1, 2027. Lawmakers behind the bill have repeatedly emphasized that it attaches no new driving fee, and any actual mileage charge would require a completely separate bill in a future legislative session.
An earlier state study, conducted from August 2024 to January 2025, estimated that California could lose around $2 billion a year by 2030 as drivers switch to electric vehicles and gas-tax collections fall. San Diego County has already had its own brush with the idea: local officials floated a regional mileage tax in 2021 but dropped it after public pushback. That history helps explain why Becerra's comments struck such a nerve: voters have heard the proposal before, and many remember reacting against it.
The Backlash From Opponents
Republican opponents moved quickly to turn Becerra's remarks into a campaign weapon. Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio warned that Democrats could push a statewide mileage tax through the Legislature without putting the measure directly before voters, according to reports on the interview.
Steve Hilton, a Republican rival in the governor's race, went further, releasing a campaign video attacking Becerra's comments and claiming the idea would cost drivers an extra $1,000 a year. Hilton promised in the video that, if elected governor, he would veto a mileage tax. That $1,000 figure is Hilton's campaign claim, not a number Becerra proposed: Becerra has not specified any per-mile rate, and no rate has been set by the state's study.
The exchange captures the political dynamic of the race. For Becerra's critics, the mileage tax is a symbol of a state government they say is always looking for new revenue. For Becerra's supporters, his answer was an honest acknowledgment of a real funding gap, not a pledge to raise taxes. How voters read it may depend less on the details of road finance than on how they already feel about the cost of living in California.
What This Means
Becerra's answer reveals something important about where California's transportation debate is heading. The gas tax, designed for an era when nearly every car burned gasoline, is becoming a weaker tool every year as the vehicle fleet changes. Sooner or later, Sacramento will have to decide whether to replace it, supplement it, or find an entirely different way to fund roads.
A mileage-based fee is the option state researchers have spent a decade studying, which is why it keeps resurfacing. It has an intuitive fairness argument: everyone who uses the roads pays for them. But it also carries obvious political and practical risks, from privacy concerns about how miles are tracked to the fear that it would punish commuters and rural drivers who have no choice but to drive long distances.
Becerra's careful wording, that everything should be on the table, suggests he understands both sides of that equation. He did not commit to a mileage tax, and he paired the idea with a defense of the existing gas tax. But by refusing to rule it out, he has given his opponents a vivid, easy-to-understand attack line in the final days before voters begin making up their minds.
What Happens Next
The immediate next step belongs to the state's study process, not to any candidate. The California Transportation Commission's report on a possible road usage charge is due to lawmakers by January 1, 2027, and any real proposal would then need to survive the Legislature, where a new tax would face a high voting threshold and intense public scrutiny.
On the campaign trail, expect the mileage tax to feature prominently in attack ads and debates in the coming days. Becerra's rivals have already shown they intend to keep the issue alive, and Becerra himself will likely be pressed to clarify whether "on the table" means a genuine policy direction or simply a willingness to study the question.
For California drivers, nothing changes for now. No mileage tax exists, no rate has been proposed by Becerra, and no bill creating one is before the Legislature. But the debate Becerra stepped into is not going away: as long as gas-tax revenue keeps shrinking, the question of who pays for California's roads, and how, will keep coming back, whoever wins the governor's office.
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