The board of supervisors of any county in the State of Mississippi bordering on the Pearl River and having a population according to the 1970 census of not less than forty thousand (40,000) and not more than fifty thousand (50,000), and through which Interstate Highway 20 runs, and wherein there is being constructed or has been constructed a plant for the extracting of sulphur from natural gas, and the board of supervisors of any county in the State of Mississippi bordering on the Pearl River and having a population according to the 1970 census of not less than nineteen thousand (19,000) and not more than twenty-one thousand (21,000) and wherein U.S. Highway 49 and Mississippi Highway 28 intersect and wherein there is being constructed or has been constructed a plant for the extracting of sulphur from natural gas, are hereby authorized and empowered, in their discretion, to pledge all or any part of the county's share of the severance tax on gas extracted, handled or processed through such extraction plant, as additional security for the payment of bonds issued for the purpose of constructing, reconstructing, overlaying and/or repairing, an access road or roads or publicly owned railroads to and from such sulphur extraction plant. The amount so pledged for the payment of the principal of and the interest on such bonds shall be deducted and set aside by such board of supervisors prior to the distribution of such severance taxes in the manner provided by law, and only the amount of such severance taxes remaining after such deduction shall be subject to such distribution. The board of supervisors in such counties may pledge only up to fifty percent (50%) of such severance taxes as their respective county may receive to retire the bonds and interest pursuant to the authority of this section. The required local contribution of said counties to the cost of the minimum foundation education program shall not be reduced nor shall the obligation of the state under said minimum foundation program to said counties be increased because of the passage of this section.
Such bonds shall be issued under the provisions of Section 19-9-1 through Section 19-9-19.