At some point, local politics stops being a job.
It becomes a lifestyle.
Like CrossFit.
Or owning a vape shop.
Or still talking about your high school football highlights in your 40s.
And after digging through payroll records, property tax documents, and overtime logs tied to Jim Paine, the answer to why he keeps running feels painfully obvious:
What else can he do?
No. Seriously.
After eight years of:
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- ribbon cuttings,
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- city hall speeches,
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- marrying city councilors,
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- back door council alliances,
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- six-figure paychecks,
- first superior mayor sued for civil rights violations,
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- and people pretending every press conference is the Cuban Missile Crisis…
You think somebody just walks away from that and starts managing a Home Depot paint department?
Come on.
Government His Only Career
The payroll records show Paine entered office at:
$81,940.05 in 2017
Then climbed steadily until reaching:
$100,377.44 in 2025
Total taxpayer-funded salary during that run?
$808,629.96
That’s not “temporary public service” anymore.
That’s a career path with better sequel potential than the “Fast & Furious” franchise.
And let’s be honest:
Nobody making over a hundred grand to attend meetings and hold microphones suddenly wakes up thinking:
“You know what sounds better? Entry-level private sector accountability.”
His 2018 Property Tax Bill Makes It All Weird
Then there’s the property tax document.
The same records show delinquent municipal charges tied to Paine’s property in 2018, including:
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- garbage,
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- sewer,
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- recycling,
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- and stormwater fees.
Again:
not criminal.
Not Watergate.
Not “Dateline NBC.”
But ?
It’s really weird.
Because normal people don’t get to lecture taxpayers about budgets when they simultaneously receive $81,940.05 in taxpayer compensation while being delinquent on city utility bills.
That’s like a dentist vaping during your root canal
Meanwhile The Mayor’s Office Is Running an Overtime Casino
The hours-history records tied to the mayor’s office show:
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- overtime,
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- comp time,
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- travel overtime,
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- long office days,
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- and recurring payroll additions.
At this point City Hall doesn’t feel like local government anymore.
It feels like:
“The Office”
meets
“House of Cards”
sponsored by taxpayer anxiety.
And the overtime patterns?
Buddy, those things had more consistency than Wisconsin winters and gas station cheese curds.
Local Media Helped Build the Myth
The local media deserves part of this smoke too.
Because after all these years:
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- salary increases,
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- office overtime,
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- property documents,
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- and political contradictions somehow never became major news stories.
Instead voters got:
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- ribbon cuttings,
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- ceremonial quotes,
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- and “Mayor Jim says…” headlines written softer than a Hallmark Christmas movie.
“At some point local journalism stopped interrogating power and started courting it.”
Meanwhile Teachers and City Workers Live in Actual Reality
The funny part?
The people who actually keep Superior functioning:
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- teachers,
- police officers,
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- labor crews,
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- utility workers,
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- and regular city staff…
Don’t get cushy political reinventions.
Teachers don’t get annual rebranding campaigns.
Public works crews don’t get applause after plowing streets at 2AM.
They just work.
“Meanwhile City Council members keep discovering raises and titles like hidden bonus levels in Super Mario Bros.”
Mic Drop
At some point politicians stop running FOR office.
- They start running FROM regular life.
And after:
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- $808,629 in taxpayer funded salary,
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- years of media attention,
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- overtime-heavy office operations,
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- and a city structure built around his clown council…
Maybe reelection isn’t ambition anymore.
“Maybe it’s just the fear of becoming a guy nobody quotes at press conferences.”
Source : Jims Payroll
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