The Great Recession has impacted both the private and public sectors, but not in the same way and certainly not to the same extent, as two recent reports have shown.

The Telegram & Gazette’s preelection poll of Worcester voters ranked “economic development/jobs” and “fiscal management” as the two issues most important to them.

In June 2009, after many months of public outcry over egregious pension abuses reported regularly in the Boston Globe, the Legislature passed and the Governor immediately signed “An Act Providing Responsible Reforms in the Pension System.”

For many years, Worcester’s public officials, downtown business and property owners, workers who frequent downtown daily and residents who travel through occasionally have all talked about the need to restore the kind of vitality to downtown that existed in the 1950’s.

It would be an understatement to say that the nation’s economy has not been doing well over the last few months.

Across the Commonwealth and most of the nation, the economic downturn is limiting the revenue available to municipalities to maintain and improve their core services: public safety, public education and public infrastructure.

For many years, private sector companies have benchmarked their performance over time and in comparison with other companies in their industry, and set targets to improve performance within certain time frames.

How do older industrial cities redirect their assets and infrastructures (e.g. old factory buildings and brownfields) and reinvent their economies to attract current and emerging industries?

Worcester voters recently passed a nonbinding ballot question indicating they favor the siting of a gambling casino within the City.

The fact that voters across the Commonwealth have rejected 65% of the Proposition 2% overrides proposed indicates that they are not convinced that public officials are making the most effective use of their tax dollars.