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Since the link apparently didn't work, I'll just post McClintock's commentary here:

Highway Robbery

The new DMV director has proposed scrapping California's current fuel tax
and instead substituting a tax based on the miles you drive.

A bit of background: California's highways have traditionally been funded by
fuel taxes - principally an 18-cent per gallon excise tax and a sales tax
that averages 7.9 percent. It is simple and efficient to collect and
provides a rough approximation of proportional use: the heavier the vehicle
or the more it is used, the more fuel it uses and the more tax it pays.
This system also provides a natural discount to the most
fuel-efficient cars.

Proponents of a mileage tax point to an inflation-adjusted decline in the
gasoline excise tax, but they ignore the dramatic increase in the sales tax
on fuel produced by skyrocketing oil prices.

In fact, Californians currently pay the 4th highest tax per gallon of
gasoline in the country. And yet we recently ranked at the very bottom of a
nationwide survey of both highway conditions and per capita spending for
highways. The problem is that existing taxes paid by highway users have not
been used for our highways. In the last two years, $2 billion of our sales
taxes on gasoline have been raided for purposes unrelated to our highways -
including $1.1 billion in the current year.

So the first question is, what makes them think the mileage tax won't suffer
the same fate?

Some other flaws:
. Unless you are going to apply endless bureaucratic formulae to adjust for
vehicle weight and fuel efficiency, the frugal hybrid driver will be paying
the same as the indulgent SUV owner.

. It gives out of state travelers a free ride on California roads, and, if
mileage is based on odometer readings, it would tax Californians even when
they're traveling out of state.

. It is highly invasive. One proposal is to place GPS tracking devices in
every car, requiring up-close and personal snooping of how and where
Californians drive.

The real agenda is to establish the means and the precedent to track the
individual driving routes of individual motorists. And the only reason for
doing this is to penalize them financially for trying to get to work
on time.