The county commission may, in its discretion, once in every 10 years cause the laws of the county to be codified, with supplements thereto once in every four years, such codification not to embrace any statute embodied in the Code of Alabama, nor any private act relating to persons or corporations, except town corporations and school districts. Every county officer shall, on his application, be furnished with a copy of such code, the same to be delivered to his successor in office.

The county commission of any county may have published, at the expense of the county, within 60 days after the adjournment of each session of the legislature, any or all laws of a local nature, said laws to be published in a newspaper published and at least partly printed in the county, which newspaper shall be permanently established and of general circulation in such county to which such laws relate.

County commissions which desire publication of local acts as provided in this chapter shall procure from the secretary of state certified copies of any laws affecting their respective counties and procure bids for the publication of said laws, and contract with the lowest responsible bidder for the publication of said law for three insertions, and the county commissions may contract for the publication of said laws on the basis of the lowest price in proportion to the circulation of newspapers bidding.

The cost of publication to the county shall in no instance exceed the rate now announced by law for legal publications.

The newspapers selected to publish said laws shall furnish to all county and precinct officers copies of the paper containing such publications; and the judge of probate shall preserve in his record book copies of such publications, which record book shall become a public record in the office of the probate judge.

(a) The county commission shall pay from the county treasury, at the regular legal rate, the cost of the advertising of notice and substance of all local bills which may be introduced in the Legislature by any member of the Legislature from the county, if the notice is signed by the member, whether the bill is passed by the Legislature or not. If the bill is for the benefit of or in reference to subjects or matters exclusively relating to one or more municipalities in the county, the municipality or municipalities shall reimburse the county for the cost of the advertising. If two or more municipalities are liable to reimburse the county for the cost of advertising the same bill, each municipality shall pay to the county an amount which bears the same ratio to the total cost of advertising as such municipality's population bears to the total population of all the municipalities affected by the bill.

(b) After August 1, 1998, except in the case of a bill for the benefit of or on subjects or matters exclusively relating to one or more municipalities in the county, if a proposed local law raising revenue for a public or private local entity other than the county commission becomes law, the public or private local entity receiving the proceeds of the revenue raising measure shall reimburse the county commission for the cost of advertising the local law from the first revenues generated by the local law. If the proposed local law would raise revenue for two or more local public or private entities, including the county commission or a municipality, each entity shall pay from the first revenues generated by the law, a pro rata share of the cost of advertising based upon the proposed percentage of generated revenue to each entity under the local law.