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State senator urges restoring 'turn back' funds and warns counties about crypto mines, turbines
Summary
A speaker identifying himself as a state senator told Carroll County officials the percentage of sales-tax 'turn back' funds returned to counties has fallen and said he will push in the next state budget to increase local distributions; he also urged counties to coordinate on responses to large private projects such as crypto mines and wind turbines.
A person identifying himself as "Bridal King" and "state senator for District 28," which he said includes all of Carroll County, asked the quorum court to support proposals in the next state budget to return more sales-tax revenue to counties.
"If you go back, you'll see a 23–24, it dropped down to 3.3%," he said, describing a decline in the county share. He argued that the change is significant when state budgets are large and that restoring a higher "turn back" percentage would give struggling county governments more operating flexibility.
He proposed a budgeting approach that would "build because a lot of our county governments are struggling right now and we're not getting the money back," and described an idea to set aside the first $150,000,000 of certain receipts to help counties retain funding year over year.
The speaker also raised concerns about large private developments—naming wind projects and cryptocurrency "crypto" mines—and said counties are often under-resourced to litigate or enforce requirements against well-funded companies. "We're looking at a lot of different options... to make sure they follow regulations because we don't have the lawyer, staffing to do and fight it," he said, and suggested counties pursue state-level partners such as the Public Service Commission or state legal resources.
Why it matters: County officials and residents asked for concrete data and options to protect local revenues and services. The remark frames two issues the court is considering: whether state policy should be changed to return more revenue to counties, and how local governments should prepare for or push back on large private projects that residents say can strain local budgets and enforcement capacity.
Next steps: The senator said he will pursue proposals during the upcoming state budget session and will meet with local leaders; he invited constituents to contact their state representatives to support any measures to increase local distributions.
