evidence: When Republican Scott Walker was governor from 2011 to 2019, he said he gave local governments the tools to handle aid cuts, by ending nearly all collective bargaining rights for most public employees. But that 2011 legislation exempted law enforcement officers and firefighters, whose pay and benefits are among the city’s biggest expenses. The city has cut its other employees’ wages and benefits by $107 million a year, while similar steps have saved the county $120 million a year. [...] Meanwhile, the city was careening toward its first fiscal cliff. For more than a decade, healthy investment returns had allowed the city to fully fund its pension system without contributing any tax dollars. That changed when the 2007-09 Great Recession sent stocks tumbling. Barrett and the Common Council scrambled to build up reserve funds to cushion the impact of eight-figure contributions starting in 2010. Henken says federal stimulus aid helped save the city. [...] "Wherever Milwaukee goes, that’s where the state goes," Crowley says.