Superior Mayor, Council To ‘Intervene’ Proposed Rate Increase By SWL&P

Mayor Jim Paine proposed a resolution which was voted in favor of unanimously Tuesday evening

SUPERIOR, Wisc. — At tonight’s Superior City Council meeting, Mayor Jim Paine put forward a resolution to intervene with the proposed rate increase by Superior Water, Light, and Power starting in 2025.

At the end of March, the ALLETE subsidiary Superior Water Light and Power submitted a request to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, or PSC, to increase rates. The request would increase gas and water rates by more than 17 percent, and electric by over 2 percent. Paine says this rate increase far exceeds increases in wages and revenue for most residents and businesses that would be impacted.

According to the Superior Chamber of Commerce, SWL&P serves 10 to 15 thousand customers in and around Superior. A March press release from SWL&P sites the need for infrastructure investments, environmental remediation and the increased cost of operations due to inflation as the reasons behind its proposal.

“I don’t know how successful we are going to be at the PSC,” said Paine ahead of tonight’s meeting. “This is the first time we’ve ever done this. We’ve never had public representation down there. I don’t know that many cities at all have ever contested rates formally. So I don’t know how successful we’re going to be, they’re pretty good at this. They do it every single year.”

Paine gave two main reasons to push his resolution forward: “One: it’s worth it. Whether we win or not, the public deserves to be represented in this conversation. Somebody has to speak up for them. Two: we know they’re going to go back and try to increase rates again next year or the year after or the year after that. They’re going to keep doing this, but so are we. We’re going to keep fighting too and we’re going to get better at it every single year.”

At the meeting, the council voted unanimously in support of Paine’s resolution.