All reasonable and necessary operating expenses of the administration of the duties imposed by law upon the Public Service Commission, including the salaries of personnel, in its regulation, inspection and supervision of municipally owned and/or operated gas utilities operating within the State of Mississippi shall be provided as follows: There is hereby levied a tax. The amount of said tax is the sum of Twenty-five Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) per year which shall be prorated by the State Tax Commission among the municipally owned and/or operated gas utilities which are subject to the tax levied by this section each year, according to the gross revenue of each of such utilities from their intrastate operation during the calendar year preceding the assessment. Each utility which is subject to the tax levied by this section shall file a statement of such gross revenue by April 1 of each year showing the gross revenue for the preceding year’s operation. These statements of gross revenue shall be filed with the commission and a copy thereof filed with the State Tax Commission. The State Tax Commission shall thereupon calculate the pro rata amount of tax to be paid by each of said utilities in order to provide the total amount above stated and shall thereupon submit a statement thereof to the respective utilities and the amount shown due in such statements to the respective utilities shall be paid by the respective utilities within thirty (30) days thereafter to the State Tax Commission. The State Tax Commission shall pay such funds into the State Treasury on the same day collected to the credit of the “Municipality Owned and/or Operated Gas Utilities Special Fund.” All administrative provisions of the Mississippi Sales Tax Law, including those which fix damages, penalties and interest for nonpayment of taxes and for noncompliance with the provisions of such chapter, and all other duties and requirements imposed upon taxpayers, shall apply to all persons liable for taxes under the provisions of this chapter, and the Tax Commissioner shall exercise all the power and authority and perform all the duties with respect to taxpayers under this chapter as are provided in the Mississippi Sales Tax Law except where there is a conflict, then the provisions of this chapter shall control. The term “gross revenue” as used in this section shall be deemed to be the total amount of all revenue derived by each of such utilities from its intrastate operations and the State Tax Commission is hereby authorized to make such audits as may be deemed necessary of any and all records of such utilities in order to correctly determine the amount of such gross revenue. It shall be the duty of the Department of Finance and Administration to advise the commission of the amount of money on hand from time to time. All expenses of the commission authorized by this section or any other act of the Legislature shall be paid by the State Treasurer upon warrants issued by the Department of Finance and Administration, which warrants shall be issued upon requisition signed by the chairman of the commission and countersigned by one (1) of the commissioners, and said requisition shall show upon its face the purpose for which the payment is being made by reference to the minute book in which such payment was authorized. It shall be unlawful for any person to withdraw any money from said fund other than by requisition issued as provided herein. A record of all requisitions issued by the commission showing to whom, for what purpose, and date issued shall be placed upon the minute books of the commission and shall become a part of the official records of the commission.

The books and accounts of the commission shall be audited at the end of each fiscal year, and at any other time deemed necessary, by the State Auditor and a copy of such audits shall be furnished to the Governor and the commission. The State Auditor may prescribe such further accounting procedure as he deems necessary for the withdrawal of funds by the commission from said special fund. All requisitions drawn in compliance with this section shall be honored by the Department of Finance and Administration and the funds disbursed in accordance therewith. The commission shall file a report at each regular session of the Legislature showing the expenditure of all funds by the commission. All proceeds of the above-mentioned tax are hereby allocated to the commission for the purpose of this section. In the event the funds provided by said tax exceed the amount necessary for the purposes of this section at the end of any fiscal year, the commission shall certify the amount which the commission estimates will be necessary for the commission for each fiscal year to the State Tax Commission, and the State Tax Commission shall reduce the tax hereby imposed to such amount for the next fiscal year and shall collect the proportionate amount thereof as above provided.

From and after July 1, 2016, the expenses of this agency shall be defrayed by appropriation from the State General Fund and all user charges and fees authorized under this section shall be deposited into the State General Fund as authorized by law.

From and after July 1, 2016, no state agency shall charge another state agency a fee, assessment, rent or other charge for services or resources received by authority of this section.