A Study Buried Faster Than Your Tax Dollars

In 2019, the City of Superior quietly commissioned a staffing and efficiency study, a deep dive into how city government was spending your hard-earned money. The result? A scathing report exposing bloated budgets, outdated management, and tax policies so reckless they should be illegal.

So what did Mayor Jim Paine and his administration do with this report? They ignored it. No press conferences, no urgent reforms—just business as usual while taxpayers got blindsided with skyrocketing property taxes.

The City Hall Money Pit: Where Your Taxes Go to Die

Let’s break down the numbers they hoped you wouldn’t notice:

• Superior’s net operating spending per capita: $1,108 — far higher than similar cities, proving they spend more but deliver less.
• General government expenses per capita: $114 — among the highest of any city surveyed.
• Street maintenance costs per capita: $186 — THE HIGHEST among all peer cities. So where’s the money going? Certainly not to fixing potholes.
• General Obligation Debt per capita: $1,460 — second highest, because what’s better than inefficient spending? Inefficient spending with massive debt.
• Municipal property tax levy per capita: $465 — fourth highest, but somehow services still feel non-existent.

The Reassessment Scam: A Tax Hike Years in the Making

Mayor Paine loves to act surprised when people complain about skyrocketing tax bills. But this study flat-out warned that the city had stalled property reassessments for nearly 15 years.

Wisconsin law says cities should revalue properties at least every 10 years—Superior? They hadn’t done one since 2005. Instead of phasing in adjustments over time, they let property values inflate another 5 years unchecked, and then dropped two decade’s worth of tax hikes on homeowners all at once.

Now, Paine wants you to believe this was some unavoidable crisis, but the truth? They saw this coming and did NOTHING.

City Government: A Clown Car with No Driver

Beyond the budget disaster, the study found Superior’s government is basically running on autopilot.

• There’s no strategic plan. They literally have no long-term roadmap for managing city growth, spending, or efficiency.
• Departments don’t communicate. The study found rampant “siloed” operations, meaning each department does its own thing, wasting resources and duplicating work.
• No oversight on spending. The mayor’s office basically rubber-stamps whatever it wants with no real financial accountability.
• City leadership is outdated. The study recommended hiring a City Administrator, someone who actually knows how to manage a budget and oversee operations without turning the city into a personal fiefdom.

But did Mayor Paine and his crew embrace these recommendations? Nope. Because why bring in someone competent when you can keep doing business the Superior way?

How to Save $348,000

The study didn’t just criticize—it outlined clear, actionable ways to cut costs and make government work better.

• Eliminate redundant positions (like the $100,000 Assistant Finance Director role).
• Stop paying $40,000 a year for an “Internal Auditor” and make the Finance Director do their job.
• Cut bloated legal expenses by outsourcing unnecessary prosecution costs.
• Streamline IT services to avoid wasting money on outdated, redundant tech.
• Stop unnecessary outsourcing (they’re paying a contractor full-time wages instead of hiring a needed electrician).

Total potential savings? $348,000 per year—and that’s before even touching much-needed technology upgrades that would eliminate stacks of paperwork and outdated processes.

The Bottom Line: You Paid for This Study, But They Ignored It

Let’s be crystal clear: This study didn’t get buried because it was inaccurate. It got buried because it was too accurate.

It exposed a city government more concerned with protecting its own dysfunction than fixing it. It warned about tax hikes years before they hit, and the mayor ignored it—then pretended to be shocked when homeowners got the bill.

So the next time you hear Mayor Paine talk about how he’s “keeping costs low” or “protecting taxpayers,” ask him:

Why did you ignore the study that proved you were wasting our money?

And more importantly—why are we paying the price for the cities failures ?