RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Counties should be allowed to form districts that would let people decide what library services they want and tax themselves to pay for them, Pennington County commissioners say.

To do that, however, state law would need to be changed.

Supporters say the library district would let county residents approve a budget and form a board of trustees.

"It's really focusing on people living outside municipalities," said Ethan Schmidt, a Pennington County Commission member. "The county still has the obligation, but this may be a better way, a more equitable way, of having payment. People in New Underwood and Wall may never get to Rapid City (to use the library), but they're paying for it."

The fairest way to provide library services is to let taxpayers in different areas form districts and decide what level of service they want, he said.

County voters decided in 1998 and in 2000 that the county should provide library services.

First, the county has to figure out whether other counties support the concept, said Jim Kjerstad, Pennington County Commission chairman. If so, the next step would be the Legislature, he said.

"It's a very preliminary concept. We have all kinds of districts - water districts, road districts and so on, and it's just a little bit better representation," he said. "People seem to like those, because they get a chance to vote direct, up or down, on their budgets."

South Dakota would not be breaking new ground if the Legislature approved such a system, said Dorothy Liegle, state librarian. She said 20 states allow library districts.

Liegle such districts could help reduce the strain on county budgets, which are limited in how much revenue can be collected but have mandated costs such as law enforcement and care of the poor.

The county would not duck its responsibility to provide service; rather, it would be a question of how that service is funded, Kjerstad said.

People who want more library service could create a library district with a different mill levy, and the county would collect the money and give it to those districts, Kjerstad said.

The main benefit is letting people decide their level of service, he said.

Also, people who live far away from any library may no longer have to support something through property taxes that they may never use, said Kjerstad.

Library districts have been discussed on and off for years, according to Greta Chapman, Rapid City public library director and president of the South Dakota Library Association.

"It's a more stable funding source in the sense that the people vote it in, and the people can vote it out. Some people may not think that's stable, but I think any time people can vote on things, it pretty much tells you what they think," she said.