Public Money Pod

In our Season 3 finale, we're speaking with Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg. We asked Treasurer Goldberg about some of her state's programs to address economic mobility, including the Office of Economic Empowerment, which Treasurer Goldberg founded. We also talked about how financial education is being taught statewide, how the current interest rate environment affects her approach to inv...

This week, we're joined by Ben Keys, Professor of Real Estate and Finance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania (and former faculty at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy). We spoke with Ben about a wide variety of issues surrounding the intersection of housing policy, insurance markets, and climate change, including how volatile weather is changi...

This week, we welcome back Jennifer Johnston, Senior Vice President and Director of Municipal Bond Research at Franklin Templeton. We wanted to get a sense for the causes and conditions behind municipal market volatility, including what affects issuer and investor behavior on both the retail and institutional sides of the market. We also talk about how today's volatility compares historically with...

This week, we're joined by David Dubrow, Partner at ArentFox Schiff. With the uncertainty surrounding tariffs in recent weeks, how should issuers prepare for contingencies, and what effects might we expect on prices, trade, and economic growth? David talks to us about all of this and more, including how mutual funds have been impacted, as well as stagflation and which sectors of the muni market ar...

This week, we're speaking with Angela Rollins, Director of Financial Empowerment for the City of Rochester, NY. As someone who is working at the intersection of personal finance and public finance, we wanted to ask Angela about how individual-focused financial empowerment programs help both resident economic mobility as well as the overall financial health of the city. We learn about some of the p...

Climate change is a reality of our world, but are we thinking effectively about addressing our challenges? To find out, we sat down with Spencer Glendon, Founder of Probable Futures. We asked Spencer to tell us about what we often get wrong when thinking about climate adaptation, mitigating financial risk tied to high-risk weather events, and what kinds of public infrastructure investments we shou...

When severe weather moves in, having accurate, real-time data is crucial. This extends to the muni market, where up-to-date analytics can help localities understand the exposure risks of their assets to extreme weather events. We sat down this week with Larry Lawrence, Head of ICE Climate, and Phoebe Devries, Senior Manager at ICE Climate, to better understand the methodology and technology behind...

On this week's episode, we're live at the ICMA conference in Milwaukee, Wis., where we spoke to David Schmiedicke, Finance Director for the City of Madison, Wis.; and William Jones, City Administrator of Mequon, Wis. With a conference focus on reimagining local government, we wanted to get Dave and Will's thoughts on financial resilience, building community trust, what the future looks like for lo...

What do James Earl Jones and free verse poetry have to do with a sewer district in Ohio? Sewage and stormwater fans might know we're talking about the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD). Their social media pages feature some next-level public utility memes, but perhaps there's a deeper purpose here? Join us as we talk to John Gonzalez, Senior Manager of Communications at NEORSD, about...

In this week's episode, we're talking to Dr. Marguerite Roza, Professor and Director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. We asked Dr. Roza to help distill the complex state-level funding formulas that determine where and how education dollars are directed, and the highly localized decisions that school districts make in spending the funds they receive....

This week, we spoke with Caitlin Lewis, Executive Director of Work for America. Amid large-scale reductions in the federal workforce, we asked about what state and local governments are doing to attract these talented public servants, and how programs like Civic Match are helping these workers find new positions. We also discuss the true extent of the federal workforce across all facets of life, a...

Government efficiency is a trendy topic these days, but Eric Schnurer, president of Public Works LLC, has dedicated his career to it. We wanted to speak to an expert on what it looks like to assess state and local government performance and spending. He shares examples of his approach and makes the case for why it's worth investing the time in speaking directly to employees, and how that leads to...

It's no secret that the pandemic changed our commuting patterns and how we use transit. How have transit systems found success in re-gaining ridership and financing capital improvement projects? We sat down with MTA CFO Kevin Willens, who talked to us about how the MTA has navigated a wide array of strategies, including mitigating fare and toll evasion and balancing its budget through 2026. We als...

On the heels of a dizzying week in which the White House ordered—then rescinded—a freeze on federal funds, we wanted to discuss what this all could mean for state and local governments. To help us make sense of it all, we're thrilled to welcome Carolyn Bourdeaux, former U.S. Representative from Georgia's 7th district and Senior Visiting Scholar at the University of Georgia School of Public & I...

We kick off our 100th episode with some Public Money Pod trivia! Then, we speak to Bill Fulton, Founder of the William Fulton Group. With an extensive background in urban planning and economic development, Bill talks to us about connecting fiscal policy and urban planning, the role of "place" in promoting community development, and rethinking how we utilize real estate in a post-pandemic world. We...

This week, we welcome back to the pod Joshua Franzel, Senior Executive and Director of Research & Data Analysis at the National League of Cities (NLC), as well as one of our first ever guests from Season 1. We talk about NLC's recent centennial tour, which wrapped in November 2024 after touring 130 cities across the country. We also discuss the NLC's City Fiscal Conditions Report, along with h...

We're joined this week by Hartford, Connecticut Mayor Arunan Arulampalam. We spoke with Mayor Arulampalam about the challenges Hartford faces as a mid-sized city that serves a much larger metro area, along with growing Hartford's tax base and funding public health and violence prevention programs. We also asked the mayor about the post-Covid challenge of utilizing downtown commercial real estate,...

Happy New Year, Public Money Pod listeners! We've got a special bonus episode to kick off 2025, where we're sharing never-before-aired clips from some of our Season 3 interviews. You'll hear excerpts from our conversations with: Dr. Angie Flick (Director of Finance, City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska) Abhi Nemani (Senior Vice President of Product Strategy, Euna Solutions) Casey Lozar (Vice Preside...

In this week's episode, we speak to Dr. Whitney Afonso, Professor of Public Administration and Government at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Government. We discuss state and local sales tax policy and issues and considerations surrounding the creation of such policy, including understanding the tax base, exporting tax burden and sales tax leakage, "cross-border" shopping,...

We're joined this week by Tom Kozlik, Head of Public Policy & Municipal Strategy at Hilltop Securities. He helps us unpack what kinds of tax reform and policies we might expect to see in the incoming Trump administration, including the renewal of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the future of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and the municipal bond tax exemption. He also talks to us about...

This week, we spoke to Andrew Kleine, Managing Director of Government and Public Sector at Ernst & Young. He told us about his work with outcome-based budgeting and how local governments can use this process to prioritize programs and outcomes that are more responsive to the needs of their communities. We also discussed the upcoming post-ARPA fiscal landscape and how cities can prepare for a t...

We're joined this week by Vijay Kapoor, Chief of Staff to the Receiver for the City of Chester, Pennsylvania. He talked to us about his background working with municipalities facing fiscal distress, and how his staff is taking a comprehensive approach to receivership in Chester, especially with their efforts to monetize the Chester Water Authority while still keeping it in the hands of the public....

This week, we talk to Findlay, Ohio Mayor Christina Muryn, who has established herself as a "continuous improvement mayor" through the time, effort, and capital she has dedicated to improving operations. We wanted to get some insight into what has been successful for her city, and why a mid-sized city such as Findlay is a great place to implement and make adjustments to a continuous improvement st...

In the past month, the southeastern United States has been hit by two highly destructive storms: Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. This week, we sat down with a true expert in emergency management, Steve Hagerty, Founder and President of Hagerty Consulting, to tell us about the role of public finance in disaster preparedness and emergency management in the aftermath of disasters. With signifi...

Few localities in the United States must consider glacial outburst flooding when strategizing about natural hazard mitigation, and fewer still have no roads into or out of their city. But such distinct features are a part of the everyday public finance landscape for our first-ever guest from the Last Frontier, Dr. Angie Flick, Director of Finance for the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska. She joi...