County commissioners on Tuesday authorized money collected from the extra $14 per marriage license fee that began six months ago to be spent but at only a fraction of what the county clerk had sought.

Marriage licenses in the county increased by $14 last August to $77, for a special revenue fund set aside specifically for wedding tourism marketing. The amount collected reached $527,583 in January.

County Clerk Lynn Goya, whose office oversees marriages licenses and who persuaded the state Legislature to approve the special revenue fund, proposed a preliminary budget of $170,000 which included $30,000 for research consulting by a private firm and $40,000 for trade missions and attending trade shows.