Californians don’t need another study to tell us that life here is becoming unaffordable. We already feel it every day. Our state has the highest cost of living in the nation, the highest taxes, and some of the most expensive housing anywhere.
For millions of working and middle-class families, California isn’t just expensive — it’s becoming unsustainable.
And now, Sacramento wants to “study” a massive new commuter tax that would punish people simply for going to work.
Assembly Bill 1421 proposes a study of a vehicle miles traveled tax — charging Californians based on how far they drive.
It’s a bad idea, and it’s coming at the worst possible time.
Supporters describe the proposal as charging only “fractions of a penny per mile.” But even at those seemingly small rates, the costs add up quickly.
A family driving 20,000 miles a year — common for commuters and working households — could be hit with hundreds of dollars in new annual taxes. And that would come on top of already record-high gas taxes, vehicle registration fees, tolls, and some of the highest fuel prices in the nation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, when California’s high living costs are factored in, our state has the highest supplemental poverty rate in the nation at 17.7%. Nearly 7 million Californians are living in poverty. Millions more are hovering just above it, struggling to afford housing, food, fuel and electricity as costs rise faster than paychecks.
Yet instead of focusing on real affordability solutions, the legislative majority keeps finding new ways to make life more expensive.
Last year, legislative leaders declared 2025 the “Year of Affordability.”
But the results tell a different story.
Of the hundreds of bills advanced during the Senate’s House of Origin period, fewer than 1% meaningfully addressed affordability.
Meanwhile, efforts to stop a 65-cent gas tax increase were blocked, along with Republican proposals that would have lowered costs for families, seniors, veterans, teachers and small businesses.
The fact that Sacramento is now considering a vehicle miles traveled tax perfectly captures how out of touch it has become.
Supporters say it’s “just a study bill.” But anyone who’s spent time in the Capitol knows that “just a study” is often the first step toward a permanent new tax. Studies build the framework, the bureaucracy, and the justification — making it far easier to impose and increase costs later.
Implementing a per-mile tax would also require new systems to track or report how much people drive, whether through odometer reporting, apps, or in-vehicle devices.
That means more bureaucracy, more enforcement, and real privacy concerns for Californians who already feel overtaxed and overregulated.
Once that system exists, raising the rate becomes easy — and far less visible than a gas tax you see every time you fill up.
Santa Clarita understands this issue better than most. We are a commuter community by design. Nearly 85% of residents drive to work.
A recent study ranked Santa Clarita as having one of the costliest commutes in the nation. The average round-trip commute here is more than 66 miles a day, costing workers over $10,700 a year — nearly double the national average.
People don’t live in Santa Clarita because they enjoy sitting in traffic. They live here because it’s a safe community with strong schools and a high quality of life — the kind of place families choose to put down roots.
But that also means longer drives, because housing closer to job centers has become completely unaffordable for most middle-class families.
Driving here isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. Nurses commuting to hospitals, contractors heading to job sites, Realtors showing homes, delivery drivers and small business owners all rely on their vehicles to earn a living.
A per-mile tax wouldn’t just hit families — it would raise the cost of doing business for anyone who drives for work.
Those costs don’t disappear. They get passed on to consumers, making everything more expensive.
At a time when Californians are already stretched thin, layering a new tax onto their daily commute shows a stunning lack of awareness and hits hardest those who can least afford it.
California should be focused on lowering costs, not experimenting with new ways to extract more money from working families.
A vehicle miles traveled tax ignores the realities of communities like Santa Clarita and risks pushing families from “just getting by” into actual poverty.
Affordability isn’t a slogan here. It’s the difference between staying in the community you love — or being forced out of it.
Published on February 7, 2026 in The Signal.