ZacCast
70 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsThe official podcast for local government nerds, from the folks behind ZacTax. We talk about everything from sales tax to city management to college sports, and bring you stories from the front lines of local government administration.
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Episodes
The Doom Loop
April 23, 2024 15:00 - 1 hour - 58.5 MBIn 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 r...
Amazon lockers, appraisal boards, and zoning reform
April 04, 2024 14:00 - 1 hour - 59.7 MBIn 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 aud...
The episode about nothing
March 22, 2024 21:00 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBFresh 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 - ...
The Great Reversals
March 07, 2024 21:00 - 43 minutes - 39.5 MBIn 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 ...
The (audit) adjustment bureau
February 22, 2024 22:30 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MBA 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.
The mo is slow
January 25, 2024 22:00 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBIn 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 Convic...
The Gourmet Underwear
January 16, 2024 22:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBPat 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 t...
Retail sales and leases
December 14, 2023 22:30 - 1 hour - 55.6 MBIn 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)
The Holiday Episode
November 30, 2023 22:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBOn 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 razzin...
The Drive-Through
November 16, 2023 22:00 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBNewest 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 Swi...
The shrinking savings
November 01, 2023 21:30 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MBHousehold 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 o...
The Segue
July 07, 2023 22:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBCome 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.
The formerly home-ruled 15-minute city
March 10, 2023 22:00 - 1 hour - 59.3 MBA 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-Mi...
The Urban Vitality of Costco
March 03, 2023 00:51 - 51 minutes - 47.6 MBPatrick 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 elec...
The neighborly, the cloudy, the nice, and the naughty
December 19, 2022 21:00 - 55 minutes - 51.1 MBNot a Stranger, Not a Friend (Strong Towns) Internet of S*** (Twitter account) ChatGPT
The Bicycle
November 11, 2022 22:00 - 1 hour - 62.1 MBFirst Errands (99% Invisible) This Way and That Way
The "Why" (with bonus content!)
October 25, 2022 20:30 - 1 hour - 72.5 MB3:00 - 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...
The staff meeting
October 12, 2022 21:00 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MBCreed'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
The profitable city
September 23, 2022 20:00 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MBPat and Chad talk about what it means for cities to be profitable, and why it matters.
I'm your density... I mean, your destiny
September 09, 2022 21:00 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBRIP 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
Meddlers of the world, unite (then cut it out, please)
August 26, 2022 16:56 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MBThe Rise of the Worker Productivity Score (NYTimes article) The Rise of Workplace Surveillance (The Daily podcast by NYT about the article we discuss)
Isn't budgeting so much fun these days?
April 22, 2022 21:30 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MBAnalysis: Property tax relief that doesn’t lower your tax bill
Open Mic Morning
March 31, 2022 22:00 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MBAmerican 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
Local impacts of Ukraine and the 2020 Census changes
March 10, 2022 22:00 - 48 minutes - 44.2 MBWhy 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)
Software subscriptions and a stock market for cities
November 16, 2021 22:30 - 55 minutes - 51 MBGASB 96
A stemwinder on sales tax, staffing, supply chains, speed bumps, and scooters
November 03, 2021 21:35 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBComptroller's October sales tax announcement Austin's Prop A Ryan Peterson's port-related Tweetstorm Zach Klein's guerrilla speed bump installation Tweetstorm
What to expect when expecting to be a city manager
August 18, 2021 15:00 - 51 minutes - 47 MBUMANT Strong Towns event (Sep 24, 2021) TML Conference Houston (Oct 6-8, 2021)
Don't buy AirPods at the airport
July 14, 2021 21:00 - 40 minutes - 37.2 MBIn this episode, we assess the state of post-Covid sales tax recovery in Texas, talk about proposals to replace property taxes with a valuea added tax, and wrap up with a discussion about designing public spaces to delight.
The sky probably isn't falling, and why a national infrastructure bank isn't helpful
June 12, 2021 18:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBChuck Marohn Tweet thread National Infrastructure Bank Coalition GFOA - Cash is King "We have no idea who the good guy is" - Y'allitics Podcast
Sales Taxes and Covid Vaxxes
May 04, 2021 21:47 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBBeer? 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 all-time great baseball movies)
April 09, 2021 17:30 - 52 minutes - 47.8 MBHB 4072 (and the totally worthless/misleading fiscal note) Is it worth the time? - XKCD The Bonnen Tapes episode - ZacCast
Dark Stores and Coachless Teams
April 01, 2021 14:00 - 53 minutes - 49.5 MBComparing 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 f...
Fighting the wrong fight on property tax reform
March 17, 2021 16:04 - 32 minutes - 30 MBTexas 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.
The one Patrick expects a lot of feedback on
March 12, 2021 22:00 - 48 minutes - 44.5 MBYou 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
Happy Texas Independence (from masks) Day!
March 03, 2021 15:00 - 34 minutes - 32.1 MBTexas governor lifts mask mandate and allows businesses to open at 100% capacity, despite health officials' warnings NYT Daily: Odessa, Part 1
Back in the saddle
February 12, 2021 16:00 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBStudent Sells $80k Pokémon Card Collection To Pay For University
Sales Tax (Post) Gameday - February 2021
February 11, 2021 22:30 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBTime Codes 01:47 Statewide overview 07:25 DFW area 08:45 Houston area 10:42 San Antonio area 12:22 Mcallen area 13:25 Midland/Odessa 17:30 Corpus Christi area 18:10 El Paso area 18:48 Amarillo area 19:47 Lubbock area 22:20 Brownsville 23:00 Kerrville/Fredericksburg 23:35 Austin/Round Rock 24:45 Killeen/Temple 25:25 Bryan/College Station 25:52 Abilene 26:49 San Angelo 26:52 Waco 27:18 Brenham 27:30 Wrap up Valeri Williams freezes during weather forecast
Greg Abbott: City Manager
December 16, 2020 17:00 - 46 minutes - 42.8 MBGov. Greg Abbott tells supporters he's considering placing law enforcement for central Austin under state control August ZacTax Roundup A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado
Czech yourself before you wreck yourself
November 27, 2020 20:00 - 31 minutes - 28.6 MBIn a special, barely-related-to-city-government episode, Cody Janicek joins us from Prague to talk Covid, living in Europe as an American, growing up with Chad, and college rivalries.
The "Chad's Mannerisms" episode
November 25, 2020 20:00 - 30 minutes - 28.4 MBTeePublic Google's 3-Word Plan to Help Employees Avoid Burnout Is So Simple You Should Steal It Death to the open floor plan
Sales Tax Gameday - November 2020
November 12, 2020 20:22 - 44 minutes - 40.8 MBBe sure to join us at www.salestaxgameday.com for your chance to play and possibly win some swag predicting sales tax collections for December 2020. 00:00 - Intro and Sales Tax Gameday winner 04:25 - DFW 09:15 - Houston area 14:10 - San Antonio area 16:00 - McAllen area 16:30 - Corpus Christi area 17:50 - El Paso area 19:45 - Midland/Odessa area 21:10 - Amarillo area 22:05 - Lubbock area 22:43 - Brownsville area 27:14 - Tyler/Jacksonville area 27:58 - Victoria/Port Lavaca area 28...
Covid resurgence, broken ice cream, street grids, and murder hornets
October 30, 2020 21:00 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBTexas is on the cusp of another COVID-19 surge. Is the state better prepared to handle it? How Pandemics Spurred Cities to Make More Green Space for People This Site Knows if Your Local McDonald's Ice Cream Machine Is Broken In a Land of Cul-de-Sacs, the Street Grid Stages a Comeback The amazing route diversity of street grids The power of gridded streets (contains image of grocery store designed by a traffic engineer) Angry French beekeeper delivers more than 1000 'murder hornets' to...
Sales Tax Gameday - October 2020
October 07, 2020 18:44 - 48 minutes - 44.9 MB00:25 - TeamZac Projections 07:42 - DFW Metroplex 12:42 - Midland/Odessa 13:55 - Corpus Christi 15:35 - Houston Area 19:20 - San Antonio 21:14 - Austin 25:56 - East Texas 27:08 - Amarillo 28:20 - El Paso 29:26 - McAllen/Edinburg 30:50 - Lubbock 31:32 - Victoria/Port Lavaca 32:12 - Brownsville 34:04 - Kerrville/Fredericksburg 34:45 - Bryan/College Station 36:55 - Waco 37:25 - San Angelo 38:00 - Sherman/Denison 38:22 - Nacogdoches 39:00 - Shining Star & Wrap Up
Round Robin - From AirBNB to our national treasure, Mike Leach
September 29, 2020 18:32 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBSignup for our free monthly newsletter, the ZacTax Roundup 0:43 - AirBNB pilots a new City Portal Airbnb’s Data ‘Portal’ Promises a Better Relationship With Cities 08:06 - Did cities defund the police in FY21? ‘We Have Not Defunded Anything’: Big Cities Boost Police Budgets August 2020 ZacTax Roundup 15:06 - Weekly Covid tests for San Antonio schools San Antonio billionaire wants to test every student in the city for COVID-19 23:18 - More gold from Mike Leach Video from the...
Sales Tax Gameday - September 2020
September 10, 2020 21:20 - 41 minutes - 37.9 MB02:48 - DFW 06:54 - Houston 10:45 - San Antonio 13:26 - McAllen area 13:35 - Corpus Christi area 15:13 - Austin Area 18:06 - Bryan/College Station 20:52 - Waco 22:18 - Abilene 23:16 - San Angelo 23:25 - Midland/Odessa 25:52 - Lubbock 26:40 - Amarillo 27:35 - El Paso 28:11 - Brownsville 29:10 - East Texas 30:04 - Sherman/Denison 31:00 - Removal of internet sales tax 33:30 - Wrap up Internet Tax Freedom Act (of 2016)
The Last Dance
September 04, 2020 17:00 - 47 minutes - 43.7 MBThe Last Dance (Netflix) Drum Corps Endurance Study (YouTube) Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson (Amazon) Nick Saban on team chemistry
Dataviz tips and dad jokes
August 18, 2020 19:17 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBShow me the Numbers by Stephen Few Preattentive Visual Properties and How to Use Them in Information Visualization Quick wins for your data visualizations (ZacTax Blog) Design Concepts for Better Power BI Reports - Part 2: Preattentive Attributes (Data Savvy)
Sales Tax Gameday - August 2020
August 12, 2020 22:18 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBSign up for the ZacTax Newsletter
Kevin Shepherd on fiscal sustainability, infrastructure gaps, and the future of development
August 10, 2020 14:15 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MBVerdunity Go Cultivate! Blog Go Cultivate! Podcast (Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, Google, TuneIn)
A city used these easy steps to have a productive council meeting and you won't believe what happened next!
July 29, 2020 21:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBOK, so maybe the title is a bit hyperbolic. But everyone's been there: stuck in council chambers, time ticking away, missing your favorite show or maybe even Thursday night football. Meanwhile, nothing productive is happening in your city council meeting. In this episode, Patrick and Chad offer a few tips for fostering productive city council meetings.