PROVO — Utah County motorists will pay $10 more to register their vehicles beginning July 1.

The Utah County Commission on Tuesday unanimously voted to adopt a $10 motor vehicle registration fee that will be used to preserve future road corridors.

The fee is expected to generate about $2.6 million annually for Utah County to use for advance acquisition of rights-of-way for corridors of regional significance.

By adopting the ordinance before April 1, the county will also get a share of the $10 million in state funds set aside during the 2006 legislative session as match money for participating counties.

"That's a little bit of an incentive," Commissioner Larry Ellertson said.

The lure of matching money and its potential to help the county better address future transportation needs led mayors from 21 cities in the county to pass a resolution in support of the fee last week at a meeting of the Mountainland Regional Planning Committee.

Dan Nelson, director of transportation planning for the Mountainland Association of Governments, said the committee wanted to make sure Utah County gets a portion of those state funds.

"There are other counties going after that $10 million," Nelson said, "and they intend to take everything they can."

Utah County will be competing for those dollars with Salt Lake County, which also adopted the fee Tuesday. Davis County had been considering the vehicle registration fee, but commissioners voted against the ordinance because a handful of cities refused to support the increase.

A state law that went into effect in 2005 allows counties to raise registration fees up to $10 for rights-of-way acquisitions. To do so, counties must notify the Utah State Tax Commission of their participation by April 1.

Dollars generated by the fee will be put in a local corridor preservation fund to be baby-sat by the Utah Department of Transportation until requested by the county.

The Utah County projects for which the money is used will be prioritized by the Mountainland Regional Planning Committee.

Commissioner Jerry Grover said such projects must be of regional importance.

"I'm not interested in funding little local roads," Grover said. "My understanding is that this is for major priority projects."

Still, $2.6 million only goes so far, even with matching funds from the state, he said.

"I hope everybody doesn't think this is some big answer," Grover said.

Commissioner Steve White said he's glad local mayors are paying attention to the county's transportation needs and are willing to do something about it. Two years ago, mayors opposed a quarter-cent sales tax increase to address such needs, White said.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Jeff Alexander, R-Orem, and passed in 2003, gives county leaders the option of putting a quarter-cent sales tax increase on the ballot to fund transportation projects.

Had that "Alexander Quarter" been supported by the cities, Utah County would have collected $15 million last year, White said.

"This is a paltry pittance compared with that kind of money," he said. "But it begins the process."

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