County begins budget process

Pennington County Commissioners have begun to look at the 2027 budget. The initial request is $129,308,471, an increase of 1.75 percent over the 2026 budget. 

“We’re already starting from a position of having some pretty high expenditures,” said Jordan Neeb, commission office director.

Personnel makes up a large part of the increase. 

“It’s kind of a trend that speaks for itself,” Neeb said. “It’s going up. And going up and going up.”  

Neeb said the only way that will change is to “make some hard decisions on what to do with personnel.” 

Personnel makes up about 57 percent of the county budget. 

Neeb said that debt services will be “pretty consistent” for a while as the county pays off a bond, unless it decides to bond more.

A little over 50 percent of the county budget is funded through property taxes, which are projected to go up by 2.68 percent. Grants, PILTS (payment in lieu of taxes), charges for goods and services and earning on investments make up the additional revenue. Projections show the county will take in $123,849,662 in 2027, an increase of 0.88 percent.

“If you want a balanced budget, $5 million is gonna have to come from somewhere,” said Neeb.

The Rapid City Library asked for $373,000 for 2027. The total proposed budget for the library is $4.285 million.

Vice chair of the Rapid City Library Board  Finance Committee Beth Brekhus said that county users make up 20 percent of the total library usage.

“Each year we calculate the cost of providing services to each active user,” said  Brekhus, which she said is $130 per user. 

She said the number requested for the county patrons is 30 percent less than the cost of providing services.

“The county users use an overwhelming amount of services,” said Brekhus. 

Library director Terri Davis said that a snapshot of county patron usage during a week in June showed 1,200 individual county residents used the library. She said use by county residents is consistent and falls into the 20-23 percent range.

Since the library budget cut last year, the number of print materials has been reduced, some databases have changed, staff has  limited hands-on events and one staff position has gone unfilled. 

The library is still part of the Black Hills Consortium, which shares a catalog with other libraries. 

Commissioner Jerry Derr said due to not every community paying the library levy yet using services, he wants to see the library funding come from the general fund. 

“Let’s share the cost throughout the county of the library services, and it’s going to be very infinitesimal” compared to those that are paying the library levy right now, said Derr. 

Commissioner Ron Rossknecht said “going forward he wants to build bridges, mend fences and build relationships” with the Rapid City Library, referring to a contentious budget process between the two entities. 

Pennington County treasurer Annette Brandt   said a recent visit to  Minnehaha County showed where her office could make improvements in moving people faster through the line saying, “hands down the issue is motor vehicle processing procedure that we are currently doing.”

Her office will no longer accept incomplete paperwork and will streamline record retention. Brandt said her staff spends a lot of time face-to-face helping customers fill out documents versus having them fill forms out on their own or with state assistance. The office also spends a lot of time calling the state versus having customers call the state on their own.

The treasurer’s office is requesting a lower budget than last year.

Derr noted that in Minnehaha it takes two months to fully train an employee while in Pennington County it takes eight months. 

The Pennington County Sheriff Office (PCSO) is requesting $14,255,852, compared to the adopted $14,204,380 in 2026. Mueller is asking for $18,072,889 for the county jail. These numbers did not include projected revenue, which sheriff Brian Mueller highlighted in a more thorough presentation. 

He also asked for guidance from the commission about a change last year that moved budget salary lines  to 96 percent staffing. With that change again, Mueller showed about a 4 percent decrease in his overall budget. 

In 2027, the PCSO expects to employ 429 individuals. Mueller said three positions were eliminated from the sheriff’s staff. He said citizen calls for service are “staying very active.”

There are currently four homicides this year. Mueller said that crime rates will continue to “trend down.”

Mueller talked about numerous partnerships his office is engaged in, and he  is looking to establish new partnerships as well. 

Mueller acknowledged his staff and volunteers. 

“I have the best staff in the world,” Mueller said as he praised his volunteers with a shout out.

Mueller is asking for a statute change that “if we arrest a parolee on day one when they hit custody on a new charge, that the state picks up that tab.” Mueller said that would account for $2 to $3 million of extra revenue for the county. He said it would have a substantial impact.

Mueller said most of the people in the county jail currently are pretrial. There are 100 marshal inmates in custody currently. 

“We could offset the expense the jail incurs every year,” said Rossknecht by increasing the federal marshal inmate program. 

Commission chair Ron Weifenbach said, “We’re heading in the right direction” with the budget.

The provisional budget will be adopted by the end of July and the next budget meeting is July 7 at 9 a.m.