In April, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau issued a report that painted an admittedly grim picture for Worcester’s future retirees and budgets.

With City Council and School Committee elections fast approaching, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau today released its “Questions for the 2013 Candidates for City Council and School Committee in Worcester,” outlining key questions to ask those running for public office.

Roberta Schaefer has been watching Worcester City Hall like a fiscal hawk since 1985.

You’re having a quiet, leisurely Saturday evening dinner with friends, when one of them passes out. You call 911. Within minutes, a UMass Memorial ambulance arrives. Great. Then, a Worcester Fire Department fire truck shows up. What’s that all about? After all, you didn’t report a fire.

Are non-profits adversely impacting the tax base in Worcester? According to a report released today by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau, the hospitals and colleges are becoming huge landowners and the impact is significant and growing.

The announcement by Rush Gaming that the proposed slot parlor for Worcester is not moving forward also mean the city will not hit the proverbial casino money jackpot for the city coffers.

Last week, The Worcester Regional Research Bureau released a report entitled “A Prescription for Retiree Health Care,” to address a crisis local governments are facing as to how to pay for “OPEBs” – “other post-employment benefits," which includes retiree health benefits -- that were promised to retirees in better fiscal times.

With news of a possible slot parlor in Worcester, the Worcester Regional Research Bureau revisited the topic it first investigated in 2007 and found that advances in slot machine technology have made the gaming facility an even more harmful potential addition to the Heart of the Commonwealth than ever before.

A report from the City's Human Resources Department that showed Worcester Police Department personnel dominating the upper echelons of City payroll in 2012 was met with little surprise by several officials and observers.

Thanks to data provided by a newly developed national infographic, GoLocalWorcester reveals the wealthiest and most expensive neighborhoods in Worcester, comparing rental cost and average household income to see where different areas fall in the Heart of the Commonwealth.