Shorewood’s Top-Heavy City Operations

Have you ever wondered how Shorewood’s expenses and revenue compares to other equivalent sized cities? So did we. We researched 5 other comparable sized Minnesota cities by households and population and summarized the following:

• Shorewood is administratively top heavy (seen in General Government)
• Employee costs for street maintenance are 45% higher than other cities
• Public Safety (police & fire) has comparable costs (minus Orono $8.30 anomaly)
• 2026 total revenues (tax levy) are 17% below comparable cities

Shorewood recently passed an 8.6% tax levy for 2026 with a major portion going to compensation expenses as stated in the ‘2026 Operating Budget’ presentation on 12/8/2025.

“Most of the changes in the 2026 budget are incremental for the continuing cost of doing business. The significant changes to the General Fund budget include increases in Police & Fire due to contractual obligations. Legal Services are increasing due to increased prosecution costs. Other changes involve personnel costs, including 3.0% COLA and structure change to benefit contributions which effects all departments”.

Shorewood Citizen’s Advocate (SCA) will continue to provide taxpayers with relevant financial comparison information to keep you informed. You can express your ideas and/or concerns to the city’s administrator or City Council members below.