ZacCast

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? Hung...

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'...

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: Wh...

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 c...

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 Prepar...

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

Pat and Chad talk about local impacts of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the anonymity changes to the 2020 Census 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

Chad and Pat are back with a wide ranging discussion, including upcoming sales tax numbers, inflation's impact on pay, Austin's minimum PD staffing proposition, zoning's impact on our supply chain problems, guerrilla speed bump installations, and the urban scooter movement. Comptroller's October sales tax announcement Austin's Prop A Ryan Peterson's port-related Tweetstorm Zach Klein's guerrilla s...

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.

After a brief hiatus, we're back talking about a proposal for a National Infrastructure Bank, and we revisit the recommendations GFOA made to help cities weather the fiscal storm of Covid-19. 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...

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...

In this grab bag episode: parking violation snitching, poo in the river, endangered affordable housing, Texas' convoluted property tax system, the City of Denton sues Ercot, Walmart/Target, and how to properly bag groceries. 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 Affor...