SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Tired of high gas prices?

Right now, drivers in California pay a tax of 18 cents for every gallon of gas bought.

The new chief of the state Department of Motor Vehicles has an idea that would wipe out the gas tax, Sacramento television station KCRA reported.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's newly appointed director, Joan Borucki, wants to charge people for every mile they drive.

Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that the idea has yet to receive in-depth consideration, but talk of a "mileage tax" is causing political commotion.

Honda dealer Katina Rapton said that the idea of mileage tax is crazy, and that California already requires the manufacture and sale of clean-burning, fuel-efficient cars, which cost consumers more to drive off the lot.

"To me it doesn't make much sense," Rapton said. "And then turn around and penalize them on the backside for using their cars and getting better gas mileage? It doesn't make much sense."

The mileage could be tracked with a device placed in the car. It's an idea that Borucki included in the governor's recently completed California Performance Review. The idea is echoed by transportation planners.

"We have to go to another device because we can't continue to rely on the gas tax in its current form because we're using less gasoline as the price of gas goes up," said Mineta Transportation Institute spokesman Rod Diridon Sr.

But Schwarzenegger was talking cautiously Tuesday.

"I know the idea that has been talked about. But I don't know exactly what that would mean and what effect it would have, exactly. So, I want to think it through before I make a commitment on that," Schwarzenegger said.

The idea could be politically explosive for the governor who was elected, in part, on his pledge to roll back the state's car tax.