Milwaukee Mayor Johnson and County Executive Crowley won big Tuesday. Challenges lie ahead

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley each easily won second terms in Tuesday’s election, setting the trailblazers up for four more years in which they’re facing far less dire challenges than they’ve already overcome.

“Our journey, it’s only just begun,” Johnson said in his victory speech Tuesday night. “As we look on the horizon, there’s still so much more to accomplish, so many more dreams to realize.”

Behind them are looming fiscal crises that posed an existential threat to each of the local governments’ public services, not to mention the coronavirus pandemic that upended communities and government finances just as Crowley and Johnson were ascending to the positions they hold today.

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But that doesn’t mean there aren’t also hard decisions to be made in this next term, particularly when it comes to the annual budgets.

“Without question, fiscal challenges will remain at the top of the list in terms of the challenges that are going to present themselves to both chief executives,” said Rob Henken, president of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum that has long analyzed the city and county finances.

He added: “I very deliberately did not use the word ‘fiscal crises,’ and so, in many respects, that’s a positive change.”

Each government’s 2024 budget served as a bridge in which they found themselves with unexpected opportunities to prepare for some more difficult years to come, he said.

Whatever funding is available is a deciding factor in the kinds of services the city and county can — or cannot — provide to residents, commuters and visitors.

Particularly at City of Milwaukee, 2025 budget likely to see return to tough calls

In an ideal world, Johnson and Crowley would be able to begin their 2025 budget process thinking about where they’d like to invest, reinvest and boost services, Henken said.

The city, in particular, is instead likely to begin that process considering where cuts may be needed and efficiencies found, he said. Still, he said, those would be nothing of the magnitude of cuts contemplated before a new local government funding law known as Act 12 went into place last year.

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