Finance Articles

Upon hearing resident Barry Brown’s speech during the city council meeting of March 23, 2026 we requested Mr. Brown to provide his documentation to SCA for a follow-up story.
 
Here’s what you need to know, in his words:

Based on Shorewood’s 2025 Long Range Financial Plan and 10 Year Capital Improvement Plan , over the next 6 years, the estimated charges from engineering firm Bolton & Menk are projected to total $7.5M.
 
Or, Shorewood could hire four internal staff engineers and save taxpayers $600k per year.

Are you sick of talking about COVID? Pun intended. Well this isn’t really about COVID, it’s about $883k given to the city of Shorewood to protect the citizens of Shorewood and it mostly all went down the drain.
 
Literally!

Millions!
 
Higher than necessary city taxes, unspent budget dollars, egregious reserves and overestimating projects are all contributors to higher compounding taxes each year.
 
How?

If you receive a gas bill from CenterPoint Energy, or electric bill from Xcel Energy you may not know the City of Shorewood has covertly been taking money from you each month for years to increase their revenue.

Are consulting services worth the time and money when 80%-90% of the recommendations are never implemented and administration, council members and even mayors rotate out every few years?
 
Cities waste so much money on elaborate consulting ideas that are never implemented.
 
This needs to stop.