$10 vehicle fee for highway?

A bill that would earmark the money from a $10 vehicle registration-fee increase, approved last year in Salt Lake County to buy land for the proposed Mountain View Corridor, has surfaced in recent days on the Hill.

The bill, HB158, would also adjust how Utah taxes gasoline. The adjustment could allow for up to a 4-cent gas tax hike in coming years. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, had discussed the possibility of such legislation prior to the session.

But dedicating the $10 fee increase to Mountain View is new. And Salt Lake County officials say it's a proposal they're not too happy about.

"The council would probably not like that," said county councilman Michael Jensen in an interview Friday. "It's my opinion that they (the Salt Lake County Council) would like (the money generated by the fee) to go to highway needs throughout the county."

Harper says that dedicating the money to Mountain View would help raise about $20 million a year to buy land for the proposed highway. In addition to the $10 fee increase, he is proposing under the bill to route another $10 million to Mountain View from a sales-tax increase authorized in Salt Lake County several years ago.

The tax increase was intended to help fund highway projects, such as adding a lane to I-15 and expanding State Street in the southern part of the Salt Lake Valley.

"It will create a revenue source that we can bond against to acquire right-of-way before it gets too expensive," Harper said. "I would expect (the county council) would come on board."

Carlos Braceras, UDOT's deputy director, said that if the department were to purchase all the land needed for Mountain View by 2009, it would cost about $450 million. Mountain View is proposed to run from I-80 in Salt Lake County into northwestern Utah County.

Braceras said that UDOT was not behind Harper's bill, but that buying land for Mountain View is a top need for the agency.

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E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com