THE GREAT SUPERIOR SHOCKING TAX SWINDLE PT 3
SWINDLE DANCE
JIMMY SWINDLE
SWINDLED TAXPAYER
HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?
705. THE GREAT SUPERIOR SHOCKING TAX SWINDLE is Superior’s biggest story of 2024 in my opinion. I tried to find every article I could and create a timeline to try and figure it all out. Let’s pick it up from the last Blog.
DECEMBER 17, 2024
We will start today with an article from Craig Sutherland’s Facebook page dated Dec. 17.
Craig Sutherland
December 17, 2024 at 5:22 PM ·
Attention, everyone!
Many of us have noticed the gift card the city sent out regarding the new tax bills, and it’s clear that many are upset. It’s time for a change, and that starts at the city council!
If you live in an even-numbered district, now is the time to step up, as elections are coming up. I heard that Jenny Van Sickle Paine will have an opponent in the 2nd district, and I think you’ll be surprised when that candidate is announced.
Let’s work together to ensure voters have strong options! Reach out if you have any questions or want to get involved.
Let’s make our voices heard!
706.
Here are some comments that people left
1-Competition for local races is healthy for a community! I hope more folks consider running for these types of seats in Superior. We rarely/never have uncontested elections in Duluth and we’re better for it as a city.
2-My biggest complaint is the bold faced lie that Paine made to many homeowners in Superior. If he would have told the truth in August, giving homeowners notice of the increases to come, we could have planned for them. There is no rational reason the increases couldn’t have been spread out over a five year period, and with full acknowledgment to the homeowners of Superior.
3-Both the Mayor and School Board Lied and didn't tell the citizens until the tax bills were out... Vote them all out, yes... how about impeachment? put it on record that the people don't agree.
4-30-70 percent increase is insane.
5- Time to sell and get the hell out of there sad cause East End is one of the best.
6-53% increase for my 1894 built home. No improvements done to it in years. Ridiculous.
707.
COMMENTS
Obviously the taxpayers aren’t happy. For more comments on Craig’s post go to: https://www.facebook.com/craig.sutherland.771
DECEMBER 17, 2024
Palacebartruth.com
I put out Blog # 77 and talked about property taxes.
Here is the link: https://www.palacebartruth.com/blog-77
DECEMBER 18, 2024
708-Here is an article from Angie Sapik’s Facebook page dated Dec. 18.
Former WI State Rep. Angie Sapik
December 18, 2024 at 6:37 AM ·
There is a lot of talk about our property tax bills that have recently come out, particularly in Superior, WI. The increases in some cases are surprisingly high. We are working on this today. We will find out how this happened, if you can contest your assessment (and when), payment plans, deadlines, referendum impacts, and any other information available having to do with this tax burden.
No one should be surprised the week before Christmas with a bill that is thousands of dollars higher than expected, especially after being told by Mayor Paine "Your new assessment will have little to no impact on your property tax bill." In his defense (if there is one) he probably actually believed that, which is short-sighted to say the least.
If you have any information you would like to share, please comment or email rep.sapik@legis.wisconsin.gov
This is a number one priority today. All information is helpful. I will help in any way I can.
Thank you,
Angie
709.
Here are some comments that people left
1-The problem is that the mayor very specifically said that tax increases would be negligible….which clearly isn’t the case.
The silence from Jim Paine, Mayor of Superior is deafening.
2- I saw a post from him yesterday
3-The post that said it wasn’t his fault, and he didn’t know anything, or have any power to do anything? That one?
4-Following as a landlord with over 75 plus properties in Superior. I have not received all the bills yet but I’ll let you know exactly how much more we have to pay but I’m guessing it’s gonna be in the $30-$50,000 range. I don’t know how we’re supposed to keep rents low, help the community and keep our homes nice and remodeled when this keeps happening!
5-My taxes bill went up 25% with no improvements. 1015 dollars! That's criminal!! I have a five lot parcel attached to the east side of my property. No city water, no city sewage. Yet they pushed the tax up from $122 a year to $595!
6-Ours went up 39.5% and I’ve seen others that went up 80-100%!! This is outrageous. Paine needs to be removed!
7-Thank you. Mine went up 1500, it’s criminal. I couldn’t contest this summer as I have been fighting cancer, surgeries, my God this will bury me. I did put a deck on my house but they already raised me 800 for that 2 years ago. HELP
8-I was deployed overseas and couldn't contest it.
9-Mine wet up like $900. Are you kidding me? I’ve been assessed every year now for the past 3 years. This old pile isn’t absolutely not worth $260 thousand. What is going on?
10-Bill must be coming due for his $1.8M electric fire truck
COMMENTS
The anger continues and with good reason. I do like the fact that Angie brought up one of my pet peeves. Sending out tax bills at Christmas. As I said before you have to be an atheist, a communist or both to do that. It’s almost sacrilegious.
For more comments on Angie’s post go to: https://www.facebook.com/Rep.Sapik
DECEMBER 19, 2024
Mayor Paine Finally Posts On Facebook
710-So this is the Mayor’s first Facebook post since the morning of the election on November 5 th . That was 44 days ago. It is also his first post since the scandal or story broke 5 days ago. Here it is:
Jim Paine, Mayor of Superior
December 19, 2024 at 12:26 PM ·
We expected some changes in the tax bills this year, but nothing as large as we are seeing.
When the final bills were calculated last week, the sheer size of some of these swings shocked me. While many of you saw nice decreases, too many of you got increases well beyond what I led you to expect. I’ve spent the last few days trying to understand what happened. Here’s what I know and what I’m doing about it:
Residential property gained a huge amount of value very quickly, outpacing all other property. But I also think we may have undervalued the commercial property this year, which shifted too much of the burden to residential homes. If I’d known this at the time, I would have warned you. I know you can handle bad news which is why I’ve always delivered it when necessary. But the final numbers surprised most of us.
Your school tax also went up much more than we expected. The bill you got is not a “city” bill, it contains four bills: The City, Douglas County, Northwood College, and the School District. The city did not raise taxes, in fact, we lowered them. Douglas County imposed a small increase.
Northwood is always small. The School District bill grew considerably. That’s why you see some of these large increases even outside the city limits. The School District released a helpful letter explaining the increase, pointing out that a very broken state funding system pushed a massive and unfair burden onto local taxpayers. If this hadn’t happened, the impact of the revaluation would have been much smaller. Again, had we known this, we could have prepared you better.
Most of this process is set in state law so there’s a limit to how much we can do. But we’ve worked too hard for too long to keep this city affordable to simply accept this. So here’s what I’m working on and what you can do:
First, I’ve directed our assessor to reassess all commercial properties and bring them closer to fair market value. That means they’ll pay more next year but it should shift some of this burden off residential property owners. It’s fair and the law requires it.
Second, I’m personally joining the School District in fighting for a better state funding formula. I’ll be with them in Madison every time they go and I’ll use every ounce of influence I have to win a better education for our kids and a fair bill for our residents. Feel free to join us at Superior Days if you want to work on this.
Third, let’s make sure your assessment and your bill are actually correct. If something seems off, like your value is too high or the math just seems wrong, give us a call and we’ll work on it. I’ve also set up a direct email address TaxBill@SuperiorWI.gov so you can send your information and ask questions. The assessor and I will both see anything you send. If we got your value wrong, we will get it fixed. We’ve already fixed some.
Lastly, let’s make sure you can actually pay this thing. The bill is due to the County Treasurer and they have great staff that can help you with options for payments. Call them at 715-395-1348
If you made it this far into my longest ever Facebook post, it’s probably because this bill hit you pretty hard so please, give me a call and let’s work on it. I’ll also keep an eye on this comment section for the next few days and try to answer some questions.
ANALYZING THE MAYOR’S POST
711-My first thought after I read his was “Did he run this by anyone before he posted it?”. If so, who? Anyway I’ll go through his post and make my comments along the way. Here we go.
The Mayor said #1
“We expected some changes in the tax bills this year, but nothing as large as we are seeing. When the final bills were calculated last week, the sheer size of some of these swings shocked me.”
COMMENTS
Oh really? So you expected increases, just not that large. I thought you said that most people would not have increases at all. Here is the part I don’t get. You paid Associated Appraisal Consultants Inc. $355,000 for revaluation assessment services. You are saying the final bills were calculated last week,(Dec 8-14). This company deals with this stuff everyday. They fully well know that these situations happen all the time. I would like to think they would have advised you about this long before December and that you have a potential problem so that would give you time to come up with a Plan B. Maybe adjust the mill rate even lower might have been some kind of solution. So bottom line, I don’t believe you “Didn’t Know” until December.
The Mayor said #2
“I know you can handle bad news which is why I’ve always delivered it when necessary.”
COMMENT
First off, WTF does that mean? Secondly, based on all the social media, including comments on your own Facebook page, I don’t think a lot of you are handling it that well. And why should you?
The Mayor said #3
“The School District bill grew considerably. That’s why you see some of these large increases even outside the city limits. The School District released a helpful letter explaining the increase, pointing out that a very broken state funding system pushed a massive and unfair burden onto local taxpayers. If this hadn’t happened, the impact of the revaluation would have been much smaller. Again, had we known this, we could have prepared you better.”
COMMENTS
I didn’t find the School District’s letter helpful at all. To me it was just a lot of gibberish. I think a full investigation of the School District should be called for. I don’t know about you, our readers, but doesn’t it seem that every time you turn around the two Cryptkeepers AKA Tony Evers and Joe Biden are throwing billions to the education system? Many people on social media have made comments wondering why after closing a school and declining enrollment, why the hell the schools need more money in the first place? Hey Jimmy maybe you could explain or even do an in-dept investigation into the article below and let us all know where that money went. I won’t be holding my breath.
Wisconsin schools received $2.4 billion in federal relief aid over the past two years, and so far, that money has largely gone toward educational technology, responses to COVID-19 and addressing the effects of school closures, according to a new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum. Here is a link to that article which was published May 19,2022.
And after blaming them he said:
‘If this hadn’t happened, the impact of the revaluation would have been much smaller. Again, had we known this, we could have prepared you better.”
Over 90% of your tax bill consists of three entities. The City, County and School District. Would it be asking too much if the leaders of these entities, which Mayor Paine is one of them, got together every year, maybe have lunch, on the taxpayers dime of course, and discuss their upcoming budgets before they release them? Then, guess what? He would have known.
The Mayor said #4
“But we’ve worked too hard for too long to keep this city affordable to simply accept this.”
Oh No. He’s back to the “I worked too hard “stuff again. Note to Mayor. You obviously didn’t work too hard otherwise we wouldn’t be in this mess.
The Mayor said #5
“First, I’ve directed our assessor to reassess all commercial properties and bring them closer to fair market value. “
Well, I guess he just scared off the last few businesses that might have been considering locating to Superior. I have never lived under a more destructive Mayor, especially towards business than Jim Paine. And I have lived under a couple, especially in Ottawa. And how did that work out? I left the country.
And by the way, I never felt that my businesses in Superior were under assessed, I just felt the rates were too damn high. And one last thing. How does Paine know if businesses in Superior are under assessed? Maybe the man who works so hard could show us the research he did to reach that conclusion.
The Mayor said #6
“If you made it this far into my longest ever Facebook post, it’s probably because this bill hit you pretty hard.”
The hardest working man in show biz
BABY BARF SPICE
Not The hardest working politician in America
OMG!!! By saying “My longest ever Facebook post” he is implying he worked tirelessly on his post. First off it’s not that long. Unless he wrote it out by crayon before he typed it up, I can’t see taking more than maybe 30-60 minutes to do that post. There isn’t much research or facts that he would have to spend a lot of time on. It’s mostly finger pointing and commentary. And the one thing missing. He doesn’t take personal responsibility and all roads lead to Jim Paine.
712.
HERE ARE SOME READER COMMENTS ON HIS POST
1-Vote no to everything, don’t let superior became some liberal safe haven that spends all its money on people who give nothing back… we need new leadership
2-Recall this liar. We need a new mayor this guy is not only a liar he's got anger problems, goes after our businesses, and jacks up our taxes to pay for his bs all over the city.
3-My commercial properties did not go down.. one went up $3-4,000 and there is 0 residential in it. Also, we just bought it a few months ago and had an appraisal done and it was $100,000 less than you guys say it’s worth! Our overall taxes are up $30,000!!!!! You want rents to stay affordable? This isn’t going to make that happen.
4-Mayor Paine, reassessing residential properties was an absolute disaster for you. What makes you think reassessing commercial property values will go any better?
5-Sad what has happened to superior born and raised there so my taxes increased a lot called and talked to the rudest man and was told nothing can be done just enjoy our water with lead thank you we need changes SAD
6-Our assessment went up by 50% (more than Zillow of course), and our taxes went up by over 15%. I've been a flatlander for 15 years now... might be time to sell and move back to Duluth.
7-Mr. Mayor you should be ashamed of yourself for vilifying SWLP the way you did to cover up your massive tax increase. You are the biggest liar & crook in Superior.
8-To summarize, ‘It’s not my fault’.
Not his fault that they spent way too much money.
Not his fault that they didn’t do the math, or place an incremental cap on the taxes.
It won’t be his fault when he shifts that burden back to consumers through the corporate taxes that he plans to further increase.
…But, it will be his fault that they all get voted out in the next elections. I’ll give him credit for that. It’ll be the best thing that could happen to Superior.
9-All the tax and spend liberals love stealing money from everyone else and and spending where they want to no matter what kind of hardship it causes. Mayor Paine is a despicable human being for vilifying SWLP and it's employees while playing down the tax increases he knew were coming and right before Christmas to top it off.
10-Taxes went up 600$. SWLP keeps going up. Sewage. And didn’t they close a school to save money. Why is Great Lakes over stuffed with kids, If we gotta pay more money anyway? It sucks being a homeowner in this town. Wish I wouldn’t have done it.
11-That’s why, I sold ALL my Wisconsin properties and moved away out of state where I actually got a tax decrease this year!!! Superior is a great place to be From...
12-All the instances in your statement where you say “ Had I known”, what kind of excuse is that?? Isn’t it your job to know these things???
13-Mayor Paine, instead of reassessing businesses perhaps you should reassess the "common" homeowner. That would go so much further with the community. And don't feel bad about knowing what the end result would be for us common homeowner...the county sent a letter letting us know this reassessment would not have an economic effect on us in the country. My question is how can all those in your positions not know what the outcome will be? You hire the companies but you don't question the results? You cannot claim plausible deniability. This is your JOB!
14-Remember when the city had free money for the Thirsty Pagan relocation not long ago? Correct me if I misunderstand that transaction. It's that kind of spending that leaves a city without solutions when they get "taken by surprise" by tax increases. Sorry, we don't have money, it goes to our progressive/liberal buddies. But now, it is business that has to take a bigger hit now? Which ones?
15-The Superior School District gets more state funding than 88% of public schools throughout the state and that is with decreased enrollment. The legislature didn't decrease aid to schools, they actually increased it statewide by over 20%. Not to mention, how much of that actually goes to educators’ salaries. Maybe people should have thought about how all these new schools & facilities would be paid for before approving them. Given the ridiculously high property tax rates relative to the rest of the Country, you can expect even less enrollment & a smaller tax base going forward, as your Mayor & City Council drive more people out of town. Brilliant management…
16-there is no such thing as a reevaluation. The company was out of Green Bay Area not local or in tune at all with superior. I asked how to prepare for my assessment debate meeting at superior city hall and the rep from the assessment company told me to “do my research and present recently sold comps” to the assessor. I spent hours finding perfect comps in superior to my home that were SIGNIFICANTLY lower in recent sold value. The assessor already had his mind made up before I even said one word that he was telling me NO to every FACT and NUMBER I presented him. Then he told me my home was an outlier because I had to overpay to secure my home during the COVID house crisis. It was such a waste of time and not a just process at all. He threatened me that if I pursue this further he would see me at a court hearing and I’d lose anyway and to save both us the time and stop arguing with him.
17-Property and school taxes go through the roof but we closed a school? We need a change with our mayor and city council.
18-Our commercial building went up 266% with this increase and we can expect more next year!? It makes it hard to want to continue to run a business or invest into other businesses in superior if this is what our future looks like.
HERE ARE SOME OF THE MAYOR’S RESPONSES
1-To be clear, the city lowered the amount we collected this year. We’ve done that a few times now. And we don’t have the power to place an incremental cap on taxes. Only the state can do that and I strongly support it.
2-I honestly don’t know but we’ll work closely with you to make sure it’s fair. The goal is fair market value. That increase seems large to me so I would hope you are close to that now and it wouldn’t jump but I can’t make any promises beyond the fact that we will try to find the fair market value, which the law requires .
3-The mill rate dropped considerably from last year. The city didn’t actually collect more in taxes. The school district did but that only accounts for part of your increase. The revaluation changed how much of the total amount you pay. That’s why some went up and some went down.
4-Thank you. I’d happily hold this but we simply lack the power to do so. I admit I’m embarrassed to be so caught off guard but most of this information wasn’t even available until the bills went out .
5-It’s not in my nature to make excuses so I cringed a bit writing that. But this information wasn’t available when I was describing the process in the summer. In fact, I didn’t have any real way of knowing the full impact until the bills went out. The tax process combines a lot of information from many sources and then puts it all together. Most of you learned of this about the same time I did. Now, I certainly admit I should have been more direct about the possibility of increases, but I don’t recall anything even hinting at fluctuations this large.
6- We have a legal and moral obligation to assess everyone fairly based on their true value.
7-While I'm mostly here to provide information, I have to disagree with this. Among all property tax payers, manufacturing is typically the lowest yield due to the manufacturing tax credit in Wisconsin. Combined with Superior's limited land, it can actually drive up the tax burden for everyone else. It has its place for sure, especially when a shop offers good paying wages to lots of workers but we need to be very selective about how much space it takes up so that it doesn't crowd out more beneficial uses. Nothing pays more taxes than residential, which also supplies customers from area businesses.
COMMENTS
713-The Mayor’s post has 576 comments, the highest amount for any of his posts in 2024. Here is the breakdown by totals, subject and date.
| Total | Subject | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 576 | property taxes | Dec 19 |
| 339 | Waterfront Park | Aug 2 |
| 235 | Royalton Manor | Jan 29 |
| 231 | vape shops | June 20 |
| 225 | Halloween | Oct 28 |
| 221 | property taxes | Aug 19 |
| 217 | potholes | Apr 17 |
| 199 | skate park | May 17 |
| 162 | utility rates | Sept 6 |
| 121 | utility rates | Nov 1 |
| 109 | Tower ave. construction | Sept 3 |
| 103 | snowstorm | Jan 12 |
| 92 | Homegrown Festival | May 2 |
| 66 | election | Nov 5 |
| 60 | eye surgery | Jan 3 |
| 40 | snowstorm | Mar 24 |
| 37 | flooding | June 28 |
| 35 | election | Oct 18 |
| 17 | AT&T outage | Feb 22 |
| 18 | key to the city | Jan 16 |
| 10 | election | Oct 22 |
| 8 | Spartans parade | Oct 8 |
| 0 | Time Arc Theater | June 23 |
So there you have it. The # 1 story on Mayor Paine’s Facebook page for 2024 is “THE GREAT SUPERIOR SHOCKING TAX SWINDLE”.
FINAL COMMENTS
714-I know I said we would wrap up this tax fiasco with this Blog. Well it’s going to take one more. But I promise it will be worth it. Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for:
THE GREAT SUPERIOR SHOCKING TAX SWINDLE PT 4
NOW THAT THIS BLOG IS OVER, I THINK I’M GOING
TO BANG MY PINKY TOE AGAINST A TABLE
