Library funding restored, future of levy unclear

The Pennington County Commission voted to add funding back to the Rapid City Library. The move came at the Dec. 16 meeting. Commissioners had previously reduced the 2026 budget from $475,000 to $81,000.

Public outcry was apparent after the move. The county explained its position repeatedly, wanting to renegotiate all library contracts with Rapid City, Hill City, Wall and Keystone. These contracts have been in place since 2016 and renewed automatically. Commissioners canceled the contracts in order to renegotiate them.

Commission chair Ron Weifenbach explained, “The particular one (contract) required a 60 day notice prior to the end of the contract to be renegotiated. It hadn’t been renegotiated in years.”

Also troublesome was a  property tax levy some rural county taxpayers have been paying for library services.

“One of the things that was really confusing is that the county has no idea who is paying this levy,” Weifenbach said. 

He said questions concerning who was able to get a library card and if those people were paying for the levy arose. He said there was “confusion along the line.” Weifenbach said a public vote, conducted in 2000, led to the confusion because state mandates also allowed municipalities to not pay the levy  

“So there’s been municipalities that have been getting cards that aren’t paying, and there’s been people that are paying that don’t have cards. It’s been a very confusing thing,” he said. 

As an example, Weifenbach said Box Elder is not providing a library and not paying into the additional levy, but its residents are getting library cards. The library levy is not a general fund item. It is a levy set by the library for anything outside of the municipalities. 

Weifenbach said the county wants to find out which municipalities want to engage in the library use. 

“If you vote yes and then all of the sudden you opt out, you leave everyone else holding the bag,” he said.

It was explained people without a library card can use services including computers, read books and attend events, but they cannot check out materials or get access from home.

The county cannot dictate anything to the Rapid City Public Library because it has a spot on the board, but that spot is non-voting. The same is true for its board rights in Keystone and Hill City.

Both Keystone and Hill City’s library contracts for 2026 have been worked out.

Commissioner Ron Rossknecht, who represents Hill City and Keystone, said he received 75 emails about library funding. 

“There’s a lot of those emails that involve folks that can truly afford the library, don’t use the library but don’t mind to pay the extra taxes to support the services that they (libraries) do for the county,” he said.

Commissioner Jerry Derr said the  library levy is capped at $150,000 for 2026. He suggested eliminating the library levy altogether. He wants the library to be funded through the general fund. 

“That levy would be laid across all taxpayers,” Derr said. 

His concern was that there would be a budget supplement for 2026 if the commissioners voted to give any funding back. 

“The library services were not the only things we cut to reduce,” said Derr. 

Commissioners seemed to support getting rid of the levy for the future, with each library coming in to present to the commission each year at budget time.

Commissioner Deb Hadcock wanted to see a  vote in the general 2026 election for the library.

Commissioners voted to approve funding up to $320,000 for 2026 coming from anticipated library reserves and a contingency to cover the rest. The vote was 4-1 in favor with Derr  voting against.

The contracts between Keystone, Hill City and Wall were all approved. A contract with the Rapid City library was also approved. A discussion about the future of the library levy will be discussed in the upcoming year.