The 2012 proposed budget for the City of Milwaukee represents a second consecutive year of relative calm before a likely return of dark fiscal storm clouds within the next two years. Dramatic savings related to employee benefits allow the city to offset state budget impacts and get by, for the most part, without significant cuts in valued services. Massive spikes in property tax levy-supported pension payments, however, as well as the loss of federal funds and flat or declining state revenues, pose a potentially serious threat to city services in 2013 and beyond.