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