Explore every episode of the podcast ZacCast

In this episode, Chad and Patrick discuss innovations in local government presented at the AFI conference last week, and check in on the Texas Legislature as the session is kicking into high gear.

Timestamps
00:00 Legislative Updates and AFI Innovations
11:05 The Voucher Debate in Texas Politics
21:02 Local Government Legislation and Its Implications
32:19 Impact of Corporations on Local Economies
34:04 Legislative Challenges and Political Interests
36:11 Property Tax Legislation and Its Implications
40:10 AI in Economic Development: Innovations and Applications
54:38 Building Secure AI Models for Confidential Data

In this episode, Chad and Patrick discuss the current state of the economy, focusing on market uncertainty and the challenges faced by city managers in forecasting sales tax revenues. They explore the importance of data-driven decision-making and the use of leading indicators to understand consumer behavior. The conversation reflects on past economic crises and emphasizes the need for caution in navigating current economic challenges, advocating for a measured approach to decision-making during uncertain times.

00:00 - Market Uncertainty and Economic Indicators
07:28 - Forecasting Sales Tax in Uncertain Times
16:38 - Probabilistic Approaches to Budgeting
23:39 - Leveraging Data Science for Economic Predictions
25:02 - Analyzing Consumer Sentiment and Sales Tax Predictions
30:15 - Historical Context: Lessons from Past Economic Downturns
33:35 - Navigating Current Economic Uncertainty
38:18 - Making Informed Decisions in Times of Crisis
41:37 - Finding Balance: Optimism vs. Pessimism in City Management

In this episode, Chad and Patrick highlight 5 bills pending in the Texas House. What are they, and what might they mean for local governments across the state? Join us to find out!

Timestamps
00:00 Greetings
07:13 On to the legislative session
14:23 HB 250
16:33 HB 416
30:18 HB 217
37:18 HB 1433
52:21 HB 924
56:21 School funding and wrap-up

In this first episode of 2025, Pat and Chad hit a wide range of topics and do our best to avoid derailing the conversation with too much college football.

Timestamps
04:25 - TPPF Property Tax Proposals
29:51 - TPPF on "Home Sharing"
40:16 - Congestion pricing in New York City
54:12 - Texas AG sues Allstate
67:48 - Comptroller's Biennial Revenue Estimate for 2025-26

Links

• Asterisk (Merriam-Webster)
• 15 Ways to Improve the M&O Property Tax (TPPF)
• Defending Home-Sharing is About Protecting Basic Freedoms (TPPF)
• Paxton files suit against Allstate, alleges company secretly collected driver's data to raise rates (Houston Chronicle)
• Biennial Revenue Estimate for 2025-26 (Texas Comptroller)

In this (probably) final episode of 2024, Pat has a couple of water related articles to discuss. Join us as we talk about how groundwater use is affecting the earth's axis; how bottled water may be way less healthy than tap water; and of course, as we recap the return of Texas vs A&M after 13 long years.

00:00 - Welcome back... 
01:37 - Patrick makes excuses for A&M's performance against Texas
05:26 - National Signing Day updates
11:06 - Are we changing the earth's rotation via groundwater usage?
26:14 - Is bottled water even healthy for us?
35:17 - Unpinning an earlier item
36:46 - Remembering a friend of ZacTax
38:00 - Wrap up

Links

• Earth tilted 31.5 inches, a study finds. So whose fault is that? Humans, of course. - USA Today
• Drinking bottled water is much worse for you than water from a tap - Science Focus Magazine

Fact-checking Patrick

• "Hats off to Texas ... they physically annihilated us" - Texas A&M Coach Mike Elko
• Gunnar Helm disputes the idea that Kyle Field is super loud - Twitter
• Will Anderson says Texas "Hardest Game I've Ever Played In" - Sports Illustrated

This week's episode centers on a Texas Monthly piece titled "Why does Texas have so little public land?" Pat and Chad talk about the article and discuss whether cities can improve their development patterns and fiscal health by emphasizing the acquisition of more public space.

Topics
00:52 - Why does Texas have so little public land?
04:28 - Patrick proposes using public land acquisition to combat fiscally unproductive sprawl
07:54 - Distinguishing local parks and green space from urban growth boundaries
08:20 - Why do cities cede the public realm of our neighborhoods to the developer?
11:07 - Why is public space in single family neighborhoods often so non-functional?
13:25 - Life, then spaces, then buildings
14:34 - We've moved public amenities to the private realm
17:01 - To each his own, sans subsidy
17:32 - Should federal land be used for housing?
18:47 - Time to debate urban growth boundaries
25:08 - What causes us to ignore the pain points in our feedback loops?
29:16 - Putting odds on the State of Texas taking a role in growth boundaries
35:52 - Obligatory CFB talk

Links

• Why does Texas have so little public land (Texas Monthly / AppleNews)
• Carlton's Landing
• Jan Gehl - First life, then spaces, then buildings

On this epic episode, we welcome Chuck Marohn, founder and president of Strong Towns. Chuck's bestselling new book, Escaping the Housing Trap, kicks off the conversation, which winds its way through a variety of important issues facing cities today.

Topics
02:33 - What is the housing trap?
04:05 - Pre-Depression era housing finance
08:00 - Government response to Depression vs the 2008 Housing Crisis
13:15 - Supply and Demand vs Finance as causes of the housing crisis
16:04 - Did we get here via High Modernism or hot fixes? 
23:16 - When did we cross the Housing Trap Rubicon?
26:36 - What role does the finance market play in the housing shortage?
33:15 - Why doesn't the housing market doesn't respond to consumer needs like other markets?
35:37 - What's wrong with demand side approaches to affordability?
38:55 - The Strong Towns approach to addressing the housing trap
45:21 - How do we sell the Strong Towns approach to our community?
1:01:56 - Budgetary forests and trees
1:04:19 - Chuck's has beef with sales tax
1:18:17 - Why sales tax creates a higher burden for understanding your city's finance
1:24:38 - What role should state government's play to help city's improve their fiscal health?

Links and Notes

• Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis
• Strong Towns
  • Strong Towns Events
  • Escaping the Housing Trap Tour
• Seeing Like a State by James Scott (Amazon)
• The case study on hotel supply Chuck mentioned (Twitter)
• Parkinson's Law of Triviality (Wikipedia)

On this somewhat feisty episode of ZacCast, Patrick and Chad discuss the built-in assumptions behind our development patterns, compare development in DFW and Houston, talk traffic planning, and talk about the problems with the electricity rate-making process in Texas. Stay tuned for a semi-lighting round at the end.

03:58 - Do we have some built-in assumptions about how cities grow?

21:39 - DFW vs Houston: development showdown
26:55 - Pre-approved development plans, yea or nay?
28:59 - RE: thoroughfare planning
34:40 - Electric rate-making woes
58:53 - Lightning round begins!
58:59 - Calling your shot on interest rate cuts
60:01 - Will the #1 ranked Texas Longhorns go undefeated?

Links

• One of Collin County’s largest undeveloped tracts sold for massive mixed-use project (Dallas Morning-News)
• Plano firm buys land for 2,200 homes in fast-growing northern D-FW (Dallas Morning-News)
• Definition of Tizzy (Google)

In this episode, Patrick and Chad drop some hot takes on the appraisal changes recently approved by the Tarrant Appraisal District. We talk about addressing the symptoms of the property tax system in Texas versus addressing the illness. We discuss the upcoming September sales tax allocation. And college football is back, so we spend some time talking about week 1 to wrap up the episode.

01:15 - Tarrant Appraisal District goes its own way
26:28 - Are split tax rates a way to address the illness of the Texas property tax system?
32:50 - Is building enough housing a way to address the illness? 
38:04 - Sales tax update
41:45 - What to expect if you see Patrick at a restaurant bar
52:30 - Come see us at a conference near you!
53:44 - College football is back!

Summer break is over and ZacCast is back at full strength. Today's episode is all about the economy. From macro to micro, how can cities prepare for what's next?

01:04 - Dr Evil and Mini-me
07:00 - What's the deal with the economy?
08:02 - The Sahm Rule: triggered
11:02 - August inflation numbers
14:40 - Real estate and interest rates
17:14 - Have cities already been in recession mode?
20:28 - Retail's struggles
27:58 - Electricity and insurance increases putting pressure on household budgets
34:45 - Where do we go from here?
42:20 - Has The Great Recession prepared current city managers for future downturns?
44:21 - Texas vs A&M: rekindled

Join us as we catch up and chat about life and cities in this grab bag episode:

00:10 - Patrick's waterpark excursions

02:53 - Patrick reviews Kalahari

01:40 - Is Schlitterbahn slipping?

12:09 - Kalahari vs Great Wolf Lodge

13:48 - Patrick reviews Schlitterbahn

20:41 - Fast Pass, yea or nay?

26:05 - The value of good customer service, and lessons for cities

33:48 - Good customer service -> good user experience

35:25 - What kind of city do we want to retire in?

37:03 - Pat's Poli Sci Corner

53:40 - Highway spending and decision making locus

1:01:17 - Quick July sales tax update

Links

• Sales tax momentum continues to slow across Texas (ZacTax Blog)

In this episode, Patrick and Chad look at the Scottie Scheffler arrest and subsequent dismissal of charges from the perspective of a city manager. What went wrong and how can you do better? Then we consider the legacy of the Progressive Movement's impact on city management and discuss whether the paradigm it ushered in has us thinking about cities the wrong way.

05:47 - The Scottie Scheffler mishap from a city manager's perspective
27:24 - Does our MPA train us to look at cities the wrong way?

• Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
• American Urbanist: How William H. Whyte's Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life (Amazon)

In this episode, Pat and Chad talk about inflation remaining stubborn and how cities can/should better report their infrastructure liabilities.

00:00 - on pets
01:55 - on inflation
16:10 - on assets and liabilities

On this episode, we talk about:

• The world's most expensive bathroom, the regulations that led to it, and how can we be better in our own cities?
• Houston is broke, but why? 
• McKinsey suggests automated vehicles will induce continued population expansion into outer ring neighborhoods and rural areas

Timestamps
00:22 - New TeamZac member
01:32 - Setting hiring policy on the podcast
02:55 - Generations Z and Alpha
03:51 - The difference between Pat and Chad
06:09 - The most expensive public restroom
14:31 - Can we incorporate staff accountability for getting a project done?
16:18 - The Purple Slip
19:38 - Can we just empower employees?
28:16 - Houston is broke
39:36 - On urban highway expansion
48:03 - McKinsey on the benefits of autonomous vehicles
57:47 - Could AVs eliminate the need for parking?
60:15  - AV cabs as public transportation: worst of both worlds?
62:04 - Special announcement time

Notes

• A Close Examination of the Most Infamous Public Toilet in America (NY Times)
• Houston mayor says the city is broke (Fox 26 Houston)
• Here's the real reason Houston is going broke (Strong Towns)
• Autonomous Driving's Future: Convenient and Connected (McKinsey)
• Smart Bumps

In this episode, Chad and Pat debrief from the Utah City Managers Association conference and talk about differences in management cultures among these United States. We talk about the growing concern of a doom loop cycle in urban commercial real estate, what is a doom loop, why do they happen, and how can cities mitigate their impacts or avoid them altogether. We follow up with a conversation about how to compare and evaluate the quality of your downtowns. Finally, we chat about a recent think piece on fire departments.

00:20 - Debrief from the Utah City Managers Association Conference and differences in management culture among states
19:26 - The Urban CRE Doom Loop: What is it and how to avoid it
34:04 - How should we compare and evaluate downtowns?
35:45 - Vibe-Oriented Development
43:51 - On Fire Departments

Links

• Many Cities Fear the 'Doom Loop' (WSJ - The Journal)
• Why the CRE Urban Doom Loop May Still Be Coming (Odd Lots)
• On Fire Departments (Thesis Driven)

In this episode, we talk about:

• The sales tax implications of Amazon lockers and whether remote taxpayers should be subjected to detailed audits to verify that their tax payments are accurate;
• Recent changes to Appraisal Board composition and various other property tax topics a recent Y'allitics episode stirred up; and
• Zoning reform measures likely headed to Texas in the next legislative session.

00:30 - April Fool's Day Recap
04:30 - No Soap Radio
08:45 - Amazon Lockers and auditing remote sales taxpayers
25:19 - Changes to Appraisal District board composition
46:18 - Zoning reform is coming to Texas

Links

• Y'allitics Episode 267
• Dunning-Kruger Effect
• Texas Tribune article on prospective zoning reforms (Texas Tribune)

Fresh off of Spring Break and without a lot of hard hitting topics to discuss, Pat and Chad bounce between friendly and city topics.

00:12 - Intro
00:42 - Spring Break activities
03:09 - Paw Patrol Live (and other such shows)
05:25 - Kids YouTube
08:00 - Bozo The Clown, Homie the Clown, and Dougie the Whale
10:45 - Paw Patrol revisited
13:20 - Disney plot holes
14:56 - What are we watching?
16:34 - Rents are falling in Austin
19:08 - Population surge in the Texas Triangle
21:52 - Moneyball for cities: yea or nay?
30:00 - Baseball's back
35:33 - College vs Pro Sports in the DFW region
37:19 - Mowing szn
38:20 - Signing off

In this episode, Pat and Chad talk about a couple of big reversals. First, March sales tax allocations in Texas appear to have unwound all of the audit adjustments from last month. Pat and Chad talk about the impacts and how we can put Humpty Dumpty back together moving forward. 

Then, in the wake of Tuesday's primary elections, we discuss what "local control" means and if our conventional view of the concept might need its own reversal. When should cities have autonomy? Are there first principles we can lean on to identify when a problem should be addressed at a regional or state level instead? A difficult devil's advocate conversation ensues, and we'd love to keep the conversation going with you!

A major sales tax audit adjustment hit cities across the state of Texas in February. Chad and Patrick talk about the adjustment and some issues it highlighted. We follow up with a discussion on the recent performance of downtowns versus power centers, and the under-appreciated role that downtowns play in differentiating your city.

In this episode:

(01:20) Sales tax momentum has been slowing for some time now. We dig in to the numbers and issue a red flag warning as cities head into mid-year budget amendments and next year's budget cycle.

• Sales tax momentum continues to slow in Texas (ZacTax blog)

(10:10) An episode of WSJ's The Journal podcast piqued Patrick's interest, so we discuss the UK post office scandal and lessons to be learned for city managers.

• The Computer Glitch That Caused Nearly 1,000 Convictions (WSJ's The Journal)

(29:30) We wrap up with an unplanned chat about the need for a city working group to define software interoperability standards so that cities can wrest power back from ERP and other software vendors.

Pat and Chad are back for the first episode of 2024. After some throat-clearing chit chat, we discuss:

• What do you do when a local news report or social media post gains traction, but you know the meat of the story isn't true? And how can cities be proactive in their communities to avoid such things in the first place?
• What's going on in the Texas legislature on school funding, and what's the impact on cities?

Although the title might suggest it, there is no explicit content in this episode!

In this episode, Patrick and Chad talk about softening retail sales figures and changes to the retail real estate landscape. We finish with a March Madness style Christmas movie showdown.

• The American Store is Shrinking (WSJ)

On today's episode, Pat and Chad talk about the holidays, from retail sales forecasts to planning holiday events to the appropriate time to start decorating. And because we can never seem to get through a fall episode without it, stick around for a spirited college football discussion.

Timestamps
00:32 - Holiday retail sales forecasts
13:12 - The joys of public events at the holidays
23:23 - Are we cool with decorating before Thanksgiving?
33:48 - Gratuitous college football razzing

Newest TeamZac member Maria Skrut joins the show as we talk about a recent NY Times article on the future of drive-throughs. Where does the drive-through rank on the hierarchy of good urban design? Is the rise of the drive-through a result of growing anti-social behavior, as the article suggests? And what is the drive-through's impact on walkability, community development, and social capital?

• Hungry (but Not for Human Contact), Americans Head for the Drive-Through (NYT)
• Taylor Swift Meme

Household savings skyrocketed during the pandemic. Now that they're falling back to Earth, will retail sales come down with them? What other headwinds might stand in the way of the significant growth we've seen since 2020? Also, is Trunk-or-Treat a harmless Halloween innovation or a sign that we have given up on creating safe, walkable neighborhoods?

Timelines
00:00 - Throat clearing
05:15 - What's up in retail?
14:18 - Headwinds for 2024-2025?
23:45 - Is Trunk-or-Treat a symptom of bad walkability?
42:30 - College football and third places

Links

• Nicolas Cage Filmography (IMDB)
• Why retail stocks are suffering (The Street)
• Where did Trick-or-Treating come from? (Stuff You Should Know)
• Peaches Song (Mario Movie)
• Mike Leach on Halloween Candy (YouTube)

Come for the best natural segue Patrick has ever managed... stick around for a discussion about the Texas Legislature's current struggles with property tax reform and how it may impact cities.

A bill in the Texas Legislature could have a chilling effect on the home-rule status of Texas cities; SB2's property tax reforms could have significant implications for certain economic development mechanisms; and our thoughts on the 15-minute city and the brewing controversy around the topic.

Links

• How the Texas GOP became the party of big government (Texas Monthly)
• HB 2127
• The 15-Minute City: Where urban planning meets conspiracy theories (NY Times)
• The Last Utopia: The 15-Minute City (Alain Bertaud)
• Order Without Design (Alain Bertaud)

Patrick and Chad discuss a proposed Costco/apartment complex in South LA, how multi-family can be better integrated into suburban areas, and give an update on the 2023 Texas Legislative Session.

• Costco wants to build a different kind of store in South L.A. (LA Times)
• HB 1465 - Grandfathering old sales tax sourcing rules
• HB 1513 - 
• SB 546 - Homestead exemption changes
• SB 547 - Homestead exemption changes, "Prop 13 bill"
• Local sales and use tax on residential use of gas and electricity (Texas Comptroller)

• Not a Stranger, Not a Friend (Strong Towns)
• Internet of S*** (Twitter account)
• ChatGPT

• First Errands (99% Invisible)
• This Way and That Way

3:00 - Local control and California's housing programs

• The Rise of the Single-Family Home (The Daily by the New York Times)

27:25 - Strong Towns podcast on customer service

• What Customer Service Should Mean for a City (Strong Towns Podcast)

46:20 - Quick return to California 

4630 - reels clip

57:40 - Cities preparing for recession

• US Cities are Preparing for Recession (Bloomberg)
• US Cities Prepare for Recession (Fortune, paywall)
• All the (Unemployed) Young Dudes (The Fifth Column podcast)

• Creed's Thanksgiving Day performance, November 2001
• The Four Chords of Pop Music
  • Why does the Four Chord Pop Song sound so good? (clean)
  • Axis of Awesome - 4 Chord Song (explicit)
• NYT Daily - The Rise of the Single Family Home
• Strong Towns Podcast - What Customer Service Should Mean for a City

Pat and Chad talk about what it means for cities to be profitable, and why it matters.

• RIP Queen Elizabeth II
• Tennis serves vs Baseball pitches
  • www.humanbenchmark.com
• Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley's recent interview
• "How Dense is Too Dense" in Fort Worth's Crockett Row?
• Fifth Circuit strikes down restrictive short-term rental rules

• The Rise of the Worker Productivity Score (NYTimes article)
• The Rise of Workplace Surveillance (The Daily podcast by NYT about the article we discuss)

• Analysis: Property tax relief that doesn’t lower your tax bill

• American Consumers Are Starting to Hit Their Breaking Point
• Bachelor Tax
• Why Doesn’t California Solve Its Housing Crisis By Building Some New Cities?
• Grapevine council grills manager over ex-staff’s spending abuses: ‘We have to know more’
• Plano City Council Rap

• Why the 2020 census has 9 fake people in a single house (Full Stack Economics)
• Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS Resolver
• What is a VPN? (Forbes)
• How Target figured out a teen girl was pregnant before her father did (Forbes)

• GASB 96

• Comptroller's October sales tax announcement
• Austin's Prop A
• Ryan Peterson's port-related Tweetstorm
• Zach Klein's guerrilla speed bump installation Tweetstorm

• UMANT Strong Towns event (Sep 24, 2021)
• TML Conference Houston (Oct 6-8, 2021)

In this episode, we assess the state of post-Covid sales tax recovery in Texas, talk about proposals to replace property taxes with a value added tax, and wrap up with a discussion about designing public spaces to delight.

• Chuck Marohn Tweet thread
• National Infrastructure Bank Coalition
• GFOA - Cash is King
• "We have no idea who the good guy is" - Y'allitics Podcast

• Beer? Money? States and cities offer incentives to get vaccinated (NYT)
• HB 4072 in-depth (ZacCast)
• HB 4072 Committee Version
• State sales tax revenue update for April 2021

• HB 4072 (and the totally worthless/misleading fiscal note)
• Is it worth the time? - XKCD
• The Bonnen Tapes episode - ZacCast

• Comparing apples and printers (March 2021 ZacTax Roundup)
• Signup for the ZacTax Roundup

Editor's note: I'm very sorry that Patrick has subjected you, our dear listener, to another forced attempt at ridiculing the University of Texas on what is otherwise an extremely valuable podcast for local public managers. While I did my best to keep the discussion geared toward local government issues, if you don't wish to hear our friendly bickering about Texas vs Texas A&M, you are welcome to skip from minute 37:30 until about the last 30 seconds of the episode. - Chad

Texas cities have been fighting the state legislature over property tax revenue caps for years, but what if they've just been a symptom of the underlying problem? In this episode, we dig further into the problem with the commercial appraisal mechanisms, how they've shifted the tax burden to residential homeowners, and how the legislative response to that phenomenon continues to make the situation worse.

• You could report illegal parking in NYC -- and get paid to do it, under new bill
• New lights, warning signs alert for sewage overflows into the Conestoga River
• Is Texas’s Affordable Housing Endangered?
• Denton Files Suit Against ERCOT Over ‘Illegal and Unconstitutional' Raid

• Texas governor lifts mask mandate and allows businesses to open at 100% capacity, despite health officials' warnings
• NYT Daily: Odessa, Part 1

• Student Sells $80k Pokémon Card Collection To Pay For University