Assessment Matters by Valuebase.ai

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Cameron, an experienced assessor and member of the Valuebase team, to discuss the launch of the Valuebase CAMA System V5. The conversation covers what makes modern CAMA design different—from intuitive user interfaces inspired by F-35 fighter jet visualization tools, to built-in AI assistants that guide appraisers through workflows in natural language, to seamless GIS and map integration that keeps geographic context front and center. Will and Cameron also explore how the rising cost and rigidity of legacy CAMA systems creates vendor lock-in, the challenge of training a new generation of assessors, and how rapidly evolving software development is shifting the industry toward faster, more personalized service models.

• 00:00 - Introduction and Cameron's background in assessment, from field appraiser to Valuebase
• 02:00 - Common complaints about legacy CAMA systems: poor usability, limited customization, and vendor lock-in
• 03:42 - Designing better interfaces: how the CTO's F-35 fighter jet visualization experience shaped the Valuebase CAMA
• 05:24 - Built-in AI assistant (ValPal): natural language interaction, guided workflows, and human-in-the-loop verification
• 08:12 - Addressing the knowledge gap as experienced assessors retire and newer staff need training support
• 09:30 - GIS and map integration: why seamless geographic visualization matters for daily assessment work
• 11:30 - Attracting top engineering talent and pushing innovation across the CAMA market
• 14:00 - Gamified design, 3D building envelopes, bulk parcel editing, and bringing joy to CAMA workflows
• 15:50 - The shift from traditional software licensing to rapid, service-oriented deployment models
• 18:55 - How to explore the Valuebase CAMA: live demos, easy data import, and where to learn more at valuebase.ai

Join host Will Jarvis for a solo presentation on the rapidly evolving world of large language models and what they mean for property tax assessors. Will covers the connection between AI and property tax through Sam Altman's Moore's Law for Everything thesis, explains how transformer-based models work and why prompting skill matters, walks through practical use cases like drafting correspondence, summarizing appeals, and enriching parcel data, and demos two free ValueBase tools—ValPal and Ratio Pal—that assessors can start using immediately.

• 00:00 - Introduction and background on ValueBase, Sam Altman's investment, and the macro connection between AI and property tax
• 03:00 - The astonishing pace of AI improvement: frontier math breakthroughs and what rapid model advancement means for society
• 06:30 - Why humans still matter: agency, real-world interaction, and the enduring role of knowledge workers alongside AI
• 08:00 - The wolves-to-dogs analogy and the debate over pausing AI development
• 10:00 - Economic context: slowing productivity growth, rising costs of essential goods, and why we need more technological innovation
• 14:30 - How large language models work: the transformer architecture, Attention Is All You Need, and text prediction fundamentals
• 16:30 - The context problem: why LLMs are like the smartest intern who knows nothing about your office
• 18:30 - Practical use cases for assessors: drafting correspondence, summarization, organizing tasks, and data enrichment
• 25:00 - The critical importance of verifying model outputs and avoiding "AI slop grenades"
• 29:00 - Why good grammar, encouragement, and clear prompting lead to better model performance
• 33:30 - Anatomy of a useful prompt: task, context, output format, checks, and asking for clarification
• 37:00 - Demo of Ratio Pal: uploading sales data, running ratio study statistics, and visualizing vertical equity
• 41:00 - Demo of ValPal: assessor-specific LLM with state property tax codes, IAAO standards, and code execution
• 44:00 - Q&A on learning to use AI tools, recommended resources like Andrej Karpathy's guides, and closing remarks

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Ellen Brideau, a veteran Massachusetts assessor with 20 years in the field and roots in assessment going back to the early 1980s. Ellen shares her perspective on why annual reassessments lead to fairer outcomes, makes a case for broadening the tax base by reconsidering exemptions for nonprofits and institutions, and discusses the importance of good property data and letting assessors inside homes. She also touches on career advice for new professionals entering the field and previews her upcoming conference presentation on identifying and defending against AI-generated property tax appeals.

• 00:00 - Introduction and Ellen Brideau's background in Massachusetts assessing
• 01:48 - What the public most misunderstands about property taxes
• 03:30 - How Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire differ on reassessment cycles
• 05:55 - Policy ideas: broadening the tax base and reconsidering exemptions for nonprofits and institutions
• 07:48 - Assessment caps, deed-restricted affordable housing, and full market value in Massachusetts
• 09:22 - Personal lessons from a career in assessment and advice for new professionals
• 12:00 - AI-generated appeals: how Ellen was caught off guard and what she's learning

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Brad Elridge, county appraiser in Lawrence, Kansas, to discuss the case for property tax and how to reframe it as shared community investment. The conversation covers the challenges of vertical equity and valuing properties at both ends of the spectrum, the administrative burden of exemptions and assessment caps, the impact of declining community bonds on public attitudes toward taxation, and lessons from states like California and Florida on what happens when tax policy goes sideways.

• 00:00 - Introduction and Brad's background spanning private and public sector appraisal
• 04:22 - Rebranding property tax as shared community expenses
• 06:42 - Why property taxes feel more painful than income taxes and the case for monthly payments
• 09:47 - Progressive property taxation, vertical equity, and the challenge of valuing high-end and low-end properties
• 13:43 - The problem with exemptions: administrative burden, unfunded mandates, and policy creep
• 15:42 - Assessment caps, inequity, and lessons from California and Florida
• 20:42 - The need for a property tax policy playbook for policymakers
• 23:36 - Declining community bonds, cultural shifts, and their connection to anti-tax sentiment
• 26:30 - Economic signals, retail sales trends, and navigating uncertain times
• 29:20 - Brad's one-sentence pitch: splitting the pizza as a community

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with James Cusick, a former AT&T Bell Laboratories software engineer and adjunct faculty member at Columbia University, who found his way to property tax policy through the Henry George School in Manhattan. The conversation covers the principles of land value taxation, how a single tax on land could replace all other taxes at the local, city, and even federal level, the role of land value capture in transit-oriented development like New York's High Line and subway system, and the problem of speculative land-holding in cities like New York and Detroit. James also shares insights from Japan's public-private partnership model for rail and real estate development, and introduces the interactive tools he's built to help policymakers and the public explore Georgist economics.

• 00:00 - Introduction to Assessment Matters and guest James Cusick

• 00:37 - James's background in software engineering at Bell Labs and Columbia University
• 01:33 - Discovering the Henry George School and the concept of land value tax
• 02:42 - Building a land value tax calculator covering all U.S. counties
• 04:38 - How a single land value tax could replace all other taxes, including New York City's $125 billion budget
• 05:53 - The pitch to policymakers: simplification, administrative efficiency, and reducing speculation
• 07:42 - Land value capture examples: NYC subway system, the High Line, and Battery Park City
• 09:33 - The problem of vacant lots and speculative land-holding in cities
• 11:52 - Property tax as a "ticket to ride" for public services and the investment vs. affordability tradeoff
• 15:33 - Henry George's anti-speculation philosophy and its modern relevance
• 17:48 - Japan's public-private partnership model for rail and real estate development
• 20:19 - Where to find the Henry George School's tools: LVT calculator, Global Georgism Viewer, subway land value tool, and AI Henry George avatar

Join host Will Jarvis as he delivers a wide-ranging conference presentation covering the macro case for property taxes, the mechanics of AI and large language models, and what these technologies mean for assessment offices. Will draws on his background as a mass appraisal researcher and CEO of ValueBase to explain why property taxes are the most efficient form of taxation for economic growth, how the historical Georgist movement shaped American assessment practices, and why AI tools—from machine learning valuation models to LLMs—are poised to transform day-to-day workflows for assessors while requiring careful validation and human oversight.

• 00:00 - Introduction to the presentation and Will Jarvis's background in mass appraisal research and founding ValueBase
• 03:24 - The big picture: total factor productivity, slowing economic growth since the 1970s, and why it matters
• 06:35 - Why property taxes are more efficient than income and sales taxes for driving economic growth
• 10:09 - Henry George and the historical roots of American property tax policy
• 12:33 - Tax revolts, vertical and horizontal equity challenges, and the capacity crisis in assessment offices
• 15:25 - Three revolutions in valuation: from the Sommer System ledger method to CAMA to the AI era
• 18:00 - Why AI is happening now: cheaper compute, the Attention Is All You Need breakthrough, and how LLMs actually work
• 24:24 - Sam Altman's Moore's Law for Everything thesis and its connection to property tax
• 27:00 - The emerging core skill: managing AI models with real-world context and validating outputs
• 30:14 - What LLMs are and aren't: not databases, not search engines, and not magic
• 33:09 - Machine learning valuation models: gradient boosted trees, overfitting risks, and the big five property characteristics
• 37:22 - Practical LLM use cases for assessors: drafting correspondence, summarizing, research, and brainstorming
• 39:38 - Key pitfalls: hallucinations, math errors, out-of-date knowledge, and data privacy considerations

Join host Will Jarvis for a special impromptu episode recorded at a conference in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Jay — a Norfolk-based assessor and host of the Conversations in the Mirror podcast — flips the script and interviews Will. Together they explore how property taxes fund local communities, the regressive nature of current assessment models, tax abatements for large commercial properties like stadiums, practical AI tools for entrepreneurs and assessors, and what drove Will to build Valuebase from rural North Carolina into an $8 million-funded company serving assessment offices nationwide.

• 00:00 - Introduction and how Jay's impromptu interview came together at a Charlottesville conference
• 02:00 - Will's background: growing up in rural eastern North Carolina and attending UNC Chapel Hill
• 03:30 - The founder mindset: balancing arrogance with humility and outworking the competition
• 05:00 - What kept Will going through the hardest startup moments: mission over money
• 06:45 - What Valuebase does: building automated valuation models and tackling regressive property taxes
• 08:30 - How property owners should think about property taxes as community investment
• 10:30 - Property taxes as the foundation of local government revenue (65-75% of city budgets)
• 12:00 - Tax abatements for stadiums and large corporations: who really bears the burden
• 14:00 - Favorite AI tools: Claude, Grok, Gemini, Perplexity, and why specificity matters over AI hype
• 16:00 - Practical AI advice: setting up Claude CoWork for daily workflows
• 17:00 - How Will raised $8 million: podcasting, relationship-building, and asking for advice instead of money
• 19:00 - Rapid-fire reflections: Will's definitions of success, service, and identity as a founder
• 21:30 - The 10-year vision: Valuebase in 80% of U.S. assessment jurisdictions and the Jack Dangermond inspiration

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Jamie Christensen, founder of Civic Vanguard, a local government software company focused on geographic information systems. Jamie shares his nearly 30-year journey in GIS and local government technology, discusses how AI is enabling a reimagined "digital counter" experience for citizens interacting with their local governments, explores the misaligned incentives in government software procurement and how AI is disrupting legacy vendor lock-in, and outlines his vision for agentic AI tools that orchestrate GIS workflows across localities nationwide.

• 00:00 - Introduction and Jamie Christensen's background in GIS and local government technology
• 02:47 - How AI and LLMs are transforming spatial information and the ability to get answers
• 05:30 - Founding Civic Vanguard: Reinventing the local government "counter" experience with AI
• 10:05 - What's gone wrong with state and local government software: misaligned incentives and vendor lock-in
• 12:50 - How AI disrupts legacy software economics: lower costs, easier migration, faster innovation
• 16:50 - Free tools and lead magnets: Civic Vanguard's Compass product and no-cost implementation model
• 20:30 - Building trust and empathy with local government clients through content and partnership
• 23:30 - Why founder-led companies are best positioned to navigate the AI transition
• 25:45 - Civic Vanguard's growth plans: expanding beyond Virginia and building agentic GIS tools
• 28:15 - Where to find Jamie Christensen online and closing thoughts

Join host Will Jarvis as he sits down with Robbe Demey, a statistician at Valuebase visiting from Belgium, to explore why property tax matters from both philosophical and economic efficiency perspectives. The conversation covers the Georgist case for land value taxation, the dire state of property tax in Belgium where valuations haven't been updated since 1975, and the persistent challenge of vertical equity in mass appraisal models. Robbe Demey also dives into how cross-validation and ensemble modeling techniques are pushing the frontier of property tax assessment, and what it would take to fix property tax across Europe.

• 00:00 – Introduction and welcome with Robbe Demey, a Valuebase statistician visiting from Belgium
• 01:30 – Why property tax matters: the philosophical fairness argument and economic efficiency of land value taxation
• 03:50 – Natural resources, property rights, and the philosophical case for taxing land versus labor and capital
• 06:00 – Land, violence, and the Georgist proposal for peace through fair resource distribution
• 08:45 – Land reform lessons from Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Asia — and why land value tax is a better mechanism
• 11:20 – The state of property tax in Belgium: outdated 1975 valuations, second-toilet quirks, and government secrecy
• 14:30 – What it would take to fix Belgian property tax through courts, better valuation, and public support
• 16:30 – EU tax policy, VAT coordination, and why property tax works best at the local level
• 17:30 – Vertical equity in property tax: why mass appraisal models systematically overtax low-value and undertax high-value properties
• 22:45 – Cross-validation and holdout sets: why rigorous model testing is essential and underused in the industry
• 27:15 – The frontier of mass appraisal: better locational data, ensemble models, and the wisdom of crowds approach
• 31:30 – How to fix property tax in Europe: reducing income taxes, rallying support, and convincing landlords everyone benefits

Join host Will Jarvis as he walks through practical, hands-on ways assessors can use free AI tools to improve their cost approach valuations. In this solo episode, Will demonstrates how tools like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and ValPal can be used to extract market depreciation from sales data, build effective age rubrics, standardize condition ratings, generate taxpayer-friendly explanations, and run ratio study checks — all with paste-ready prompts attendees can take back to their offices immediately.

• 00:00 - Introduction and overview of the session on using free AI tools for the cost approach
• 02:22 - Why the cost approach breaks down: depreciation tables, effective ages, and condition ratings
• 04:44 - How time constraints — not lack of knowledge — keep these inputs from being maintained
• 07:00 - The free AI toolkit in 2026: Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and ValPal compared
• 10:15 - Ground rules for using AI safely: stripping identifiers, verifying outputs, and checking IT policy
• 13:20 - The prompt pattern every example follows: role, data, task, and proof
• 16:30 - Extracting market depreciation from your own sales in one prompt, with a live Florida county example
• 20:00 - Effective age: replacing gut feel with a written rubric and using AI vision on field photos
• 23:30 - Condition ratings: running outlier scans and drafting a standardized field guide with AI
• 26:30 - Explainability: generating plain-English cost approach explanations for property owners
• 28:00 - Closing the loop: running ratio study checks with IAAO formulas via AI
• 30:00 - The 30-minute weekly routine, common failure modes to avoid, and concrete next steps