The Orrville beer tax has been restored.

Gov. Robert Bentley signed legislation allowing the town of Orrville to once again receive a portion of the beer tax collected from the sale of beer within its corporate limits starting in June, according to State Rep. Darrio Melton, D-Selma.

“I think it’s great for the county commission,” Melton said before later mentioning the positive outcome it carries for Orrville. “I think it’s great for the city of Orrville to have those funds.”

Melton, who reintroduced the legislation, said he expected it to pass the Senate and the House of Representatives with ease.

“It wasn’t a controversial bill at all,” Melton said. “It was just a bill that we had enough time to get under both chambers and then the governor signed.”

Orrville Mayor Louvenia Lumpkin said she was excited to learn Tuesday that the bill had passed, since the tax brought in about $10,000 annually to the town before it was retracted.

“When funds are limited you can’t get the things you want,” Lumpkin said. “With this budget going up a little bit, that will give us a little bit more financial flexibility.”

Lumpkin said that in November 2012 the town clerk brought to her attention that an audit showed Orrville would no longer receive those taxes and checks received from Dallas County since the 1995 amendment were unauthorized.

Legislation passed in 1994 stated that in Dallas County, the entire tax collected on beer sales inside the corporate limits of the town of Orrville shall be paid as follows: 72.23 percent to the town and 27.77 percent shall be paid to the Dallas County Commission.

In the same act, beer sales within the city of Selma are given the same provisions.

An act passed the following year featured changes that Lumpkin said severely affected Orrville’s budget.

The 1995 act notes that Selma would continue to receive 72 percent of the proceeds from the beer tax and the commission would receive 27 percent, but provided no provisions for the town of Orrville.