(a) 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 department and, when collected, shall be paid by the 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 the 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.

(b) There is continuously appropriated the receipts from the taxes levied in this article to the State Forestry Commission for the use of the State Forestry Commission. The amount of money as shall be appropriated for each fiscal year by the Legislature to the department with which to pay the salaries, the cost of operation, and the management of the department shall be deducted, as a first charge thereon, from the taxes collected under and pursuant to this article. The expenditure of the sum so appropriated shall be budgeted and allotted pursuant to Article 4, commencing with Section 41-4-80, of Chapter 4, Title 41 and limited to the amount appropriated to defray the expenses of operating the department for each fiscal year, or two percent of the receipts, whichever is less.