Regional planning group warns federal cuts could shrink funds for local water and community projects

Jennifer Seitzma, executive director of the Black Hills Council of Local Governments, presented the council’s draft 2024 performance report to the Pennington County Board of Commissioners on May 19, 2025, outlining grant and loan work the council completed across its 21-member region.

“Successful proposals as a total for our whole region resulted in $46,500,000 of outside funding,” Seitzma said, summarizing the council’s work for January–December 2024. She told commissioners the council helped prepare 60 applications in 2024 and administers 86 active contracts for grantees in the region.

The council reported it helped secure about $18 million for Pennington County projects in 2024 and nearly $312 million for Pennington County over a 24-year span. Seitzma said the office is “quasi-governmental” and that roughly 86% of its budget is spent on personnel to retain institutional knowledge for grant application and administration work.

Seitzma reviewed federal programs the council relies on and flagged proposed cuts in the White House “skinny budget” as potential threats. She singled out the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Community Development Block Grant program as examples. “When it came out, I did take a look… the reason for the cuts in that program were that they saw it as a duplication of the USDA WEP programs,” she said, adding that the SRF is a primary tool in the region for sanitary sewer infrastructure and related preliminary engineering costs.

Seitzma said CDBG grants have become one of the state’s main tools for community facilities and that pairing CDBG with USDA loans often makes projects achievable. She warned that if those federal funding streams are cut or significantly rearranged, “there’s gonna be less tools to do some of those projects in our region.”

Commissioners discussed the council’s role and next steps. Commissioner Ron Weifenbach praised the council’s documentation and said the county’s Water and Natural Resources Board would need to respond if federal funding changes. Commissioner Drews asked for Seitzma to share the budget documents she referenced; Seitzma said she would send links to the “skinny budget” pages and flagged that her office is already managing a recent loss of roughly $60,000 in a USDA contract.

Seitzma also noted other federal funding priorities may grow under the administration’s proposal, including large increases for rail and passenger-rail-related projects; she said the council can provide a draft sign-on letter for jurisdictions that want to support rail funding. She identified Fran White as the primary contact at the regional small-business loan partner (formerly Black Hills Community Economic Development, now Ally Dakota).

Staffing and program continuity were recurring themes. Seitzma said the council is exploring alternative services it could provide if particular federal programs are cut. She told the board the council would bring options to member counties and could pursue more local contract work to make up revenue shortfalls. Commissioners asked that the council circulate the budget guidance and keep the county informed as federal proposals develop.

Ending: The board did not take formal action on the presentation; commissioners requested the council provide the budget links and said they will follow up through standard county channels if federal program changes warrant county-level responses.