A January 2025 view of the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
As South Dakota lawmakers consider spending $650 million to build a prison, another major building expense is looming: the first full restoration of the state Capitol in nearly 40 years.
The state official in charge of planning the restoration is Darin Seeley, commissioner of the Bureau of Human Resources and Administration. When he briefed a committee of legislators during a public meeting Tuesday at the Capitol, one of them asked for a ballpark estimate of the cost.
Seeley stressed that he does not have an official number yet. “But,” he said, “we’re talking probably between $150 million and $200 million.”
A photo shows part of the South Dakota House of Representatives chamber in 2025, left, while a rendering shows what it could look like after a restoration project. (Courtesy of the South Dakota Bureau of Human Resources and Administration)
South Dakota is in a tight budget climate while the Trump administration and Congress reduce support for states. The governor’s budget office says various state departments have already lost a combined $24 million in federal funding since Trump’s second term began.
That’s a reversal from the latter part of Trump’s first term and the Biden years, when South Dakota’s budget benefited from pandemic aid and stimulus funding. Lawmakers set aside enough money during those years that they should be able to build a men’s prison without taking on any debt, if they approve the plan during a Sept. 23 special legislative session. The new prison — which would be built on undeveloped land in northeast Sioux Falls — would replace the oldest parts of the pre-statehood penitentiary.
The lawmaker who asked Seeley for a ballpark estimate on the Capitol project is state Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr, a Republican from Sioux Falls.
“That number itself is a tremendously huge number,” Karr said afterward in an interview with South Dakota Searchlight. “I look forward to getting some more data and facts.”
No savings have been set aside yet for a full Capitol restoration. But lawmakers have provided about $12 million in the last six years to study problems afflicting the Capitol, along with its lake and its grounds, and to make temporary repairs while planning for a larger project.
Lake studied
So far, that work has included studying the condition of the 115-year-old, 1,300-feet-deep well feeding Capitol Lake. The well formerly produced natural gas in addition to water, and for many years the gas was lit to create a flaming fountain. The gas flow began to diminish about 20 years ago and can no longer sustain a flame.
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A study in 2019 determined that the well could be compromised, and that a collapse could cause an uncontrolled flow of water to surface wherever it finds a pathway. A follow-up study that included sending a camera down the well determined it was in better shape than originally feared, and “a new water source for Capitol Lake is not the emergency that we had been led to believe,” Seeley told lawmakers.
Discussion continues about a replacement water source, but it’s been pushed down the priority list. Meanwhile, the lake has been dredged.
Roof repaired
The Capitol’s roof was repaired recently, although not without problems. Lawmakers learned Tuesday that while the roof was undergoing work, heavy rains in May and June leaked into the technology equipment closets that serve the House of Representatives chamber.
About $185,000 of damage was done, which will hopefully be covered by insurance. It’s unlikely new equipment will be in place by next month’s special session, meaning some House members’ voting buttons might not work, and the electronic display for voting results might be inoperable. The Legislative Research Council is preparing workarounds.
Plaster repair, rotunda restoration
The next project targets numerous areas of damaged plaster for repair, which Seeley hopes to finish before the start of the annual legislative session in January.
“We’re going to make it look right in the short run, in places where it’s the worst today,” he said.
Cracked plaster in the back corner of the state House of Representatives chamber at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre, as seen in March 2025. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
After that, Seeley plans a rotunda restoration to begin after the 2026 legislative session and be completed by the 2027 session. A company specializing in historic restoration will try to recapture the rotunda’s original beauty, which Seeley said is dimmed by aging paint and plaster, and poor lighting.
While all of that is happening, Seeley hopes to work with the Capitol Complex Restoration and Beautification Commission — a bipartisan group of seven people appointed by the governor — on a full restoration plan. The last full restoration was completed for the 1989 statehood centennial celebration, he said.
The needs are many. Nearly every communication system that’s ever been installed in the Capitol is still in the building. The steam heating system needs a replacement. Some of the plumbing is more than 100 years old. Roof drains that run inside the walls need attention.
There was no discussion Tuesday about how to pay for it all. Karr said that discussion should start soon.
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