§9-13-84. Payment and disposition of taxes generally; Special State Forestry Fund; appropriation of tax receipts for use of State Forestry Commission.

The taxes imposed by this article, and any other taxes imposed on the severance of forest products, shall be due and payable quarterly to the State Department of Revenue and shall, when collected, be paid by such department into the State Treasury. When so paid into the State Treasury, all such taxes shall be credited by the Treasurer to a special fund which is hereby created and which shall be known as the Special State Forestry Fund of the State of Alabama, which fund shall be disbursed under the supervision of the State Forester, subject to the restrictions embodied in this article, for the purpose of carrying out the statewide forestry program as provided by law and for no other or different purposes. Not less than 85 percent of the taxes collected under and by virtue of this article shall be expended for forest protection. No portion of such fund shall revert to the General Fund of the state at the end of any fiscal year, and any surplus shall be allowed to accumulate from year to year and be disbursed as exigencies of the statewide forestry program may require.

There is hereby continuously appropriated the receipts from the taxes levied in this article to the State Forestry Commission for the use of the State Forestry Commission. Such amount of money as shall be appropriated for each fiscal year by the Legislature to the Department of Revenue with which to pay the salaries, the cost of operation and the management of the said department shall be deducted, as a first charge thereon, from the taxes collected under and pursuant to said article; provided, however, that the expenditure of said sum so appropriated shall be budgeted and allotted pursuant to Article 4 of Chapter 4, Title 41 and limited to the amount appropriated to defray the expenses of operating said department for each fiscal year; provided further, however, that for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1989, and September 30, 1990, the portion of the receipts allocated to the Forestry Commission is hereby appropriated for use in their fire control program.

(Acts 1945, No. 169, p. 285, §5; Acts 1951, No. 843, p. 1474, §1; Acts 1967, No. 763, p. 1619, §1; Acts 1988, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 88-842, p. 315, §1.)