Soupnutz Crashes Into a Billion-Dollar Budget Party — No Confetti, Just Receipts

You know it’s bad when a snarky blog stumbles into a billion dollars in public spending and the reaction from City Hall is basically a collective “Oops.”

No conspiracy theory here, folks. This isn’t back-of-the-napkin math or some guy in a Facebook comment section yelling about chemtrails and potholes. This is from the actual, state-required financial filings submitted by the City of Superior, Douglas County, and the Superior School District to the State of Wisconsin.

That’s right — $1,000,000,000 in taxpayer-funded spending since 2018.
Filed. Certified. Public. And mostly ignored.

Until now.
Soupnutz got curious. Then Soupnutz got Excel.

Where the Money Came From is You (and Went…?)

Between the three local government heavy-hitters:

• Douglas County: Multi-million-dollar annual budgets, padded by grants, levies, and a never-ending stream of “justified” expenditures.

• City of Superior: From hiring consultants to “streamline” already streamlined departments, to paying the mayor’s salary like he’s running a Fortune 500 company.

• Superior School District: A cool half a billion in six years, and yet teachers are still putting colored pencils on their Amazon Wish Lists like it’s Black Friday at the Dollar Store.

All three are required by law to file their annual financial reports and budgets with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue and other state agencies.
So this isn’t speculation. It’s official. It’s public. And it’s insane.

Billion-Dollar Breakdown: Rough Cuts from Real Docs

You don’t need to be an accountant to feel queasy:

• Superior School District: ~$70–90 million per year in spending. Multiply by 6-8 years. That’s $500M+ easy.

• City of Superior: ~$30–35 million annual budgets = another $200M+. Add special projects and grant inflows? Closer to $320M.

• Douglas County: Another consistent $300M+ since 2018.

Total: $1 billion+ in combined taxpayer spending.
All real. All documented. All rubber-stamped.
And still — you’re dodging potholes like they’re part of a live-action Mario Kart track.

But Wait… Where’s the “Return on Investment”?

A billion dollars should buy more than:

• One failed pedestrian plaza project

• A city council that meets more than it acts

• Consulting reports that could’ve been written by ChatGPT in 10 seconds (you’re welcome)

• Another strategic plan that says “Let’s study that more”

• A school district still asking parents to supply hand sanitizer and snacks

We’re not even talking high expectations. At this point, Superior would settle for snowplows that beat the thaw and sidewalks that don’t look like the city hired Salvador Dalí to design them.

Official Numbers, Zero Official Accountability

So, Mayor Jim “Give Myself a Raise” Paine, care to explain how this level of spending still results in:

• Service delays

• Infrastructure breakdown

• Endless public meetings with zero public clarity

• A city that, despite spending more, feels like it’s doing less

And to Rebecca Scherf, the “Chief of Staff” slash Gatekeeper of the Paines: No, transparency doesn’t mean emailing PDFs of agendas no one reads. It means showing people where their money went — and why they can’t see any trace of it.

The Big Picture: Taxpayers Got Played

Here’s the 2025 kicker: even if your mill rate is slightly lower, your home value went up, so your bill still goes up — while government budgets balloon like a grade school science fair volcano.

It’s not a spending problem.
It’s a results problem.
And it’s all documented.

We’ve backed into $1 billion in taxpayer spending, and the best we’ve gotten is a city Facebook page telling us the snow is too fluffy to plow.

Coming Soon from Soupnutz: The Billion Dollar Breakdown

This is just the teaser. A taste. The opening credit sequence to the local government soap opera you didn’t know you were starring in.

Soupnutz is digging through every budget, audit, and expenditure line from 2018 to now — and we’re going to name names, show receipts, and call out the fluff that’s been vacuuming your paycheck under the guise of “services.”

Because when it comes to spending your money, Superior’s leadership has been treating the public checkbook like it’s an Etch-a-Sketch — draw whatever they want, shake it when the heat comes, and hope no one noticed.

Well… we noticed.