County Mayor Peter Corroon and a unanimous County Council embraced a resolution opposing tolls to help pay for the proposed Mountain View highway.

"West-side residents for years and years and years have helped pay for a statewide and regional [transportation] system," Republican Councilman and Magna resident Michael Jensen said. "They shouldn't be disproportionately burdened by also having to pay for a system that is viewed just as theirs."

Other councils - including those in West Valley City, Taylorsville, South Jordan and Herriman - also have passed anti-toll resolutions.

"We need to show that, as the county government, we support our west-side residents," said Corroon, a Democrat. "We don't feel that it's fair for west-side residents to have a toll road when the other roads that were built throughout the county were built using all the citizens' funds."

The highway along the proposed Mountain View Corridor would stretch about 40 miles from Interstate 80 near 5800 West in northern Salt Lake County to Lehi in northern Utah County, providing an alternative north-south traffic artery to commuter-clogged Interstate 15.

Trouble is, the state hasn't found a way to pay for the new $2 billion to $3 billion freeway. Gas taxes? Maybe. Car-registration fees? Perhaps. A toll road? Possibly.

While the Utah Department of Transportation has explored user fees as a funding option - one that could cost some west-siders up to $200 a month - state Transportation Commission Chairman Stuart Adams said his panel hasn't seriously considered it.

"I don't think anyone wants to take a tool out of the toolbox and throw it away," Adams said, "but it isn't a tool that has been talked about."

Even so, county and city leaders fear that state transportation planners someday might see value in tapping west-siders' wallets with a toll, a move officials described as unprecedented in Utah's highway-construction history and financially unfair to one side of the Salt Lake Valley.

"Why only here?" Republican Councilman Mark Crockett asked. "It is not really all that fair."

jstettler@sltrib.com