(a) Any incorporated city or town in this state shall have the right by proper ordinance to tax and collect reasonable privilege license fees or taxes from any motor bus terminal or any person operating any terminal or station facilities for transportation of passengers, property or express transported by motor carrier and any motor carrier as defined by this chapter where such motor carrier does business in said city or town by receiving passengers or freight for transportation for hire between said city or town and another point in Alabama; provided, that said privilege license or tax shall not exceed the sum of $25.00 in incorporated cities or towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants, that said privilege license or tax shall not exceed the sum of $100.00 in incorporated cities or towns of over 5,000 and less than 25,000 inhabitants, that said privilege license or tax shall not exceed the sum of $200.00 in incorporated cities or towns of more than 25,000 and less than 100,000 inhabitants and that said privilege license or tax shall not exceed the sum of $300.00 in incorporated cities or towns of over 100,000 inhabitants, and that the population shall be computed on the federal census of 1930 or any subsequent decennial federal census; and provided further, that said privilege license or tax shall, in cases of motor buses, include the privilege of receiving and discharging both passengers and express.

(b) This section shall not be construed as allowing a municipality, county, metropolitan government or combination thereof to regulate any church owned buses used for carrying passengers to and from religious services, regardless of size and capacity, or to regulate any motor vehicle engaged primarily in the hauling of 10 or fewer passengers to and from their regular places of employment, taxicabs and airport limousines exempted, or to regulate the organizers, sponsors or promoters of motor vehicles engaged primarily in the hauling of passengers to and from their regular places of employment, but regulation by the appropriate government shall be permitted, however, if the motor vehicles excluded from regulation and the organizers, sponsors and promoters of such vehicles, are specifically defined and regulated as a class separate and distinct from other existing common carriers and contract carriers.