Welcome to March Municipal Madness – a chance to pit your favorite local priority against all the rest!
Worcester’s current median residential tax bill is $3,454, while the median commercial tax bill is $8,716. For that price, the city’s taxpayers are purchasing an impressive array of services. Yet not all are happy – taxpayers rightfully make new demands on government and regularly call for more and better services. With limited resources, government leaders must determine a system to identify valuable new policies and initiatives, and weigh those new approaches against existing municipal demands.
March Municipal Madness offers an opportunity to match one policy proposal or initiative against another to determine the most worthy. Our four regions (Education, Economic Development, Public Safety, Public Administration) result in hard political choices, but every option has an opportunity cost in the resource-limited world of local government.
While one new policy will win our tournament, it’s just a warm-up for the ultimate competition of them all – a home in a balanced municipal budget!
Complete our online bracket or print and mail your completed bracket to The Research Bureau.
Five lucky policy wonks will be selected to win two tickets to The Research Bureau’s 30th Anniversary Annual Meeting this spring.
Let the games begin!
DOWNLOAD BRACKET