Pennington County passes 2026 budget

Pennington County Commissioners adopted a 2026 budget of $131,558,231. The 2024  county population is estimated to be 115,979.

By means of comparison, Minnehaha County, which is estimated to have a 2024 population of  208,639 passed a $132,633,413 budget for fiscal year 2026.

While Minnehaha County’s budget reflects a 1.5 percent increase over its 2025 budget, Pennington County Commissioners passed a budget that was comparable to the one passed for fiscal year 2025,  which totaled $131,617,545.

County commissioners began budget hearings in July and had considered a $132,234,641 provisional budget. 

Those numbers changed as commissioners spoke and made decisions to cut programs, mostly social service in nature.

Jordan Nebb from the commissioners office gave commissioners an overview of where they stood. The budget included a 2.9 percent cost of living adjustment for employees and increased annual step increases that vary based on positions. 

Neeb said revenues of $127,544,148 leave the county with a shortfall. 

“You’re going to be draining down different budgets by about $5 million total,” he said. 

About $4.5 million of that would come from the general fund, and the county would be left with about $13 million in reserves.

Commissioner Ron Weifenbach, who was present via phone, said that despite dipping into reserves, “It doesn’t affect the financial picture of the county, but it also doesn’t put an extra burden on the taxpayers either.” 

He added, “I believe we can do a better job in the future.” 

He said getting the “real numbers” was “sort of like herding cats.”

Commissioner Jerry Derr clarified a previous meeting motion that should have included reducing building and grounds and the public defenders office personnel by 4 percent. These departments were inadvertently omitted at the last meeting.

Annette Brant, Pennington County treasurer, asked the commission to consider increasing personnel in her department “as a last effort” to enhance its capacity to effectively serve the community. She called the current staffing level “not sufficient to meet the demands in a timely and thorough manner. ”

Brant cited wait times of 15 to 60 minutes, depending on transactions, and Derr said that the county will not get back to smaller county wait times. He was against additional employees. Weifenbach was in favor of taking care of current employees.

Derr said personnel is a major driver in the budget. 

Lara Roetzel also asked for full-time employees for the states attorney’s office,  saying, “Our demand simply exceeds our capability.”

She said without the correct number of staff her office will reach a “crisis point” where her office will begin to make decisions as to what crimes it prosecutes. 

Commissioner Ron Rossknecht wanted to know how to address Roetzel’s concerns. Derr said the idea was complicated and the county needs to figure out “why we have a backlog.” He gave an idea of modeling what Minnehaha County does but did not elaborate. But he mentioned how much specialty courts take.

“It’s a broader picture than just adding staff in my mind,” Derr said.

Rossknecht cautioned against cutting the level of service taxpayers expect. Derr said personnel costs have jumped in the “double digits” and said the budget now is a “tick under” Minnehaha and that not that many years ago Pennington County operated on a $70 to $80 million budget. 

“I think we have plenty of employees. I think we need to look at how those employees are allocated,” Derr said.

There were four open positions in the detox department that were not included in the budget.

Commissioners voted to  fund those positions but not  to give additional employees to the departments that requested. 

Rossknecht and commissioner Gary Drewes did not support the budget nor any changes to the provisional, which included funding the reductions to social programs, The Rapid City Library and the Pennington County Council on Aging.

Commissioner Deb Hadcock said it was the “easiest budget I ever went through,” adding the “transparency” of the numbers made the decisions easier.