Greetings, and welcome back to ZacCast, the official podcast for Local Government Nerdery. I am Chad. That is Patrick. After the holiday hiatus, we are, uh, back in full swing, and today, we are gonna talk about, um, how to handle news articles that you may or may not know are false.

True.

And we're also going to, uh, to, uh, talk a little bit about, uh, insurance offsetting, you know, some of the property tax savings that we're all expecting. Uh, Patrick's got some personal experience and then some opinions about that, so, uh, but before we start, how are you doing, Pat?

I'm great, man. I'm great. How are you?

Fantastic.

It's 2024. The kids are back in school.

Finally.

Productivity levels have, um, have drastically gone up over the last couple of days at Zach, if you've noticed-

I've... Well-

... on the, on the backend.

I can tell you, yesterday, my productivity level was about zero, even though the kids are finally back at school.

You, you had to get everything done.

'Cause it was just like... Well, I had to clean up. I still haven't finished cleaning my office, but it's just like I just needed a little bit of decompression time-

Mm-hmm

... I think. Like, I got some stuff done. You know, we did some client work. Um, but, like, I couldn't get back into programming quite yet. I couldn't get into, like, a flow state sort of mind.

So I used to make fun of you for this all the time when we were in city management, but you would always talk about, like, workloads and, like, how you accomplish, like, the efficiency of work and, and, like, doing projects for a certain period of time, and then kinda taking some time off from that project and doing something else, and, like, how that would impact your productivity level in your mind. And I used to... I, I need to, I need to, like, mea culpa here, because I have found that when I do not have white space in my work life, right, I'm less efficient. So if I try to go from, like, 8:00 to 5:00 and just grind out, I'm less efficient in that time period than I am if I work in, like, blocks of time. So my schedule blocks are very different now than they were, obviously, when I was a city manager. Um, but it's, it is really interesting. I, and I think everybody's a little different. I know you have some philosophy on that, and, and for me, it's really... I think it's really taken me into my old age now that I'm over the hump. Um, it's really taken me -

You're halfway there.

I'm halfway there, yeah. Uh, now that it's, you know, it's taken me some time to really realize that I am actually more efficient working, um, harder, not smarter, I guess. I don't know which way you wanna look at that. But, but working, uh, a tighter schedule, like, in blocks, than I am if I just try to run eight hours through. It's, it's kind of a kind of interesting way to look at it.

So-

I'm also more efficient if I, if I work out earlier in the day, because I, I tend to be able to be more focused in the afternoon.

I think there's a difference in the type of work that we do.

Mm-hmm.

You do a lot of client relations and talking-

Yeah

... on the phone, um, which my wife does the same thing, and it's exhausting.

Yep.

I mean, for me, talking on the phone for, like, this podcast, I'm gonna be drained. Just, just talking for a, you know, 45 minutes, an hour. Um, but for me-

It's 'cause you- it's 'cause you're having to look at my face for 45 minutes, it just drains you.

Uh, yeah. Well, it's 'cause my face is totally overexposed on my camera.

Mm-hmm.

Um, so it's kind of, like, distracting me. Anyway, uh, the type of work that I do, if I can get into a flow state, I can go for five hours, and I won't even notice. But as soon as I get distracted, it just totally resets everything. And so that was, that was, for me, not so much like I have a two-hour block for this and I have a 30-minute block for that. It was just like, I just know that I need to be able to get into a state of mind where I can be really, really productive.

Mm-hmm.

And if I know I'm gonna have distractions, then it's much more difficult to do.

Interesting. Interesting. Which, which you do-

So-

You do have an interesting work cycle. Um, I joke with people that I'm, like, the one person that can break through, like... 'Cause if I, if, if I call you and everything's on silent, and you're in the middle of something, um, it's not gonna go through. But if I hit you up a second time, you know I actually need to talk to you, so you'll answer that phone, right?

Well, I have do not disturb on my phone from, like, 9:30 to 4:30, and-

Oh

... there are basically three people who have access to break through that.

Yeah.

So.

And am, am I one?

You're one.

Yes. So good. Now, I will say the cool thing about, uh, you know, 'cause we are an Apple company, right? We use all Apple products, basically, except for some of the folks who have to work on the finance side and deal with some of that. But, um, it is cool that Apple allows me to see that you're in that, 'cause then I will... I, I... Sometimes I'll text you stuff that doesn't really matter, 'cause I know you're not gonna see on the do not disturb on the text side, right?

Yeah.

Um, but it does allow me to see that, like, you're probably in some type of flow at that point, and not to-

So I'm gonna be honest with you. Are you talking about, like, iMessage?

Yeah.

It, it's... It'll say, like, I have, uh, notifications turned off?

Yes.

I don't know how to, how to fix that. Because I don't actually have notifications turned off most of the time.

No, it's in the do not disturb stuff, though.

It does that.

Like, if you have a do not disturb-

No, it's-

... set, it's the s- it, it's gonna be for the notifications too, right?

Yes, but I don't have... Like, it will show up even if I don't have notifications turned off.

Okay.

So I, I, I don't know. Maybe that's just some weird setting, like 16, you know, screens deep.

Mm-hmm.

But I, I have not been able to figure out how to turn that off yet.

So two, two things in technology. One, for Christmas, the company bought Chad a new Mac, and the speed is significantly enhanced versus old Mac. I'm, uh, I imagine.

It is, but I don't have it fully set up yet.

Okay. So we're not using-

But-

... the full power of this new-

This is my... I'm using the old one right now

... this new Mac system.

Yeah.

Okay.

But they have the new M3 chip on the iMac finally, and so after about five years, it was worth the upgrade.

Yeah. Is that like a thousand times faster than the old chip? Like what's the-

Oh, my gosh. It's, it's so fast.

Yeah. Okay.

I, I'm sure that over time it will, it will bog down.

Yeah.

But yeah, like just, just even opening up apps is like instantaneous versus-

How many tabs do you have open right now?

Um, on my old computer?

Yeah.

If I could even figure it out, 'cause they're spread across... Well, I only have six windows open, but I, I mean, I've probably got 50 tabs open.

Okay.

That's not very many.

I can't live that way. I'm sorry. I get, I get to, like, 10 tabs, one window, and I'm like, "I gotta clean it up. I gotta shut them down." I can't, I can't live, I can't live your style.

Gotta declutter. How many tabs do you have open on Safari on your phone?

Oh, you know, that doesn't bother me as much 'cause you don't see it, right?

Yeah.

But hold on, I'll go check.

I think there's a maximum capacity of 500 open tabs.

Uh, where does it... Does it show you a number? It doesn't show you a number.

Yeah. If you-

Oh, it does. 100, 165 tabs.

Okay. That's-

And I will say every once in a while, like, especially when Safari starts running goofy, I'll just go through and close everything, all the tabs. So, you know. My wife, uh, uses private browsing, and so she never has anything open. Once she closes out, everything closes out, right?

Mm-hmm.

So, which I find very interesting. I do not use the private browsing function.

I used to use it only for Orange Bloods because they had a login glitch, and it wouldn't let you log in. But in the private browsing mode it would, so-

We're not gonna dig into this a lot, but Orange Bloods is in total freak-out mode now-

No

... because Sark is on the market for Alabama.

No, he's good. We're all good.

He's... We're all good. Everything is fine.

We're, we're all good here.

Everything is fine. Let's not talk about it. So, uh-

Nothing to see here

... the second thing I wanted to talk about on technology, by the way, uh, before we get started is Apple came out-

The Vision Pro

... with the Vision Pro. And Chad has already started to send out Vision Pro videos to me. It... And the pre-order window starts in, like, what? Eight days? Seven days?

Yeah.

Okay.

Next Friday.

Uh, so we're gonna need that first client of ours to want to take- ... meetings on Vision Pro-

Yes

... so that we can justify Chad's purchase of Vision Pro, uh, for, uh, for Zach. So.

Yes. Anyone who's looking to have their sales tax data, like, take over their entire vision-

Yes

... let me know so that we can justify, like, building out an app for it.

I mean, I'm thinking, like, we should be able to, like, have this where, like, your sales tax, you know, chart, like, rises from your hand, right?

That would be cool.

Yeah, that would be cool. And so, um-

Just Minority Report where you can just, like, flick taxpayers around.

D- hey, hey. We're n- we're not gonna leave any technology untouched. Just like, uh, we currently have integrated some AI functions, we will, we will integrate some of this. So, uh, at some point, we just got to see, you know, what it's gonna be. Will this be the new, you know, major product launch for Apple? I don't know. It's gonna be interesting.

No.

It's really expensive.

It is. I don't think that this kind of technology is going to become, like, totally mainstream until they're just glasses. Like, you can't-

Like, yeah

... walk around with a big thing on your head, like, looking like a fly. Uh, and I think also the, the Vision Pro, like, I think it has to be plugged in.

It has to, it has to be-

Or at least-

... plugged into the battery pack

... yeah. And the battery pack-

Yeah

... is like this big brick that sits-

It's a-

... on a desk or on the ground or something.

It's actually... It's, it's just, it's basically the, like, the size of a, a, an iPhone Plus.

Oh, okay. So it's not too big.

Yeah.

But yeah, like, it's not practical to use it in everyday life, even though you can, like, kinda see through it.

Yeah.

Um, so, uh, it's, it's more of, like, a computer. But-

Yeah. So, but for me, though, like, y- you know, I'll be interested. I would imagine that we're probably gonna purchase some of these because when has Zach not purchased-

Because I have a credit card.

When has Zach not purchased a new Apple product? Um, I'm not sure it's ever happened. Um, but I will be interested to see... 'Cause, like, watching the video and, like, the full functionality of, like, having just, like, a mega computer screen in front of you, especially in the data analytics stuff that we do, and looking at... Like, I could see that being, uh, really increasing productivity to a level that would make it worth the purchase, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, and so that, that to me is pretty interesting and, and I'll be there. And then, you know, also just the, the ability to, um... What I thought was the coolest about it is it kinda takes away the keyboard altogether and you basically just speak and it, it recognizes what you're trying to do based on the words that you say and go. I wanna test that obviously to see if it's as cool as the video shows it out to be. But, you know, it seems like, you know, "Hey, FaceTime," and it pulls up FaceTime, right? Uh, "Safari," then as you start speaking it browses and finds things and does, you know, those type of things. So it's, it's getting there. I agree with you, when they become, like, a thin set of Oakley glasses, that's gonna be a game changer for them. Uh, now these are, um... For anybody who has the Facebook, uh, what's the ones that we bought a couple years ago to check out? They make me sick.

Oh, the Oculus?

The Oculus. Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, I can't, I can't do the Oculus because they-

That's a gaming system, though.

It is. It's gotta be-

I mean, you can watch movies and stuff.

Yeah. Um, but it's just like I can't find my center of gravity there. It, like, makes me dizzy.

Yeah.

Uh, but the w- the cool thing about the Apple Glasses is, um, you, you see the environment you're still in, right? So, like, you're looking at a computer, but you still see the wall behind it.

Mm-hmm.

Right? You still see the furniture in front of you. And then, like, when somebody walks in the room, the glasses actually show you the real state of the person who's there, right? So, um, that's a pretty big advancement over what Oculus has and it's, it's the biggest trip-up that most people have with Oculus, right? Um, but you're right.

Yeah.

Apple's much more... It's like the iPhone. They're much more into the productivity side with this product than they are, you know, like a gaming system. In fact, the video doesn't show, if I remember right, I don't think it shows any gaming at all.

No. The promotional video may not. The w- marketing website talks about gaming.

Okay.

But Apple's never really been-

Big in the gaming world, so

Yeah. Well, not really on the chart of things I wanted to talk about technology-wise, but Netflix apparently is looking at getting into gaming, so we'll see.

Yeah, like putting games into the, like into the-

Into the, yeah

... the queue of options that you have?

Uh, apparently into the queue of options. Maybe actually working with a major gaming system to, to have like, you know, uh, you know, rental licensing, so like the Spotify game for games basically, right?

Apple has that with the Arcade.

Yeah, it's just not, it's not like high... You know, it's not like a high-end game that you would buy for like Christmas.

Yeah, honestly, Xbox has too. The Xbox Game Pass I think is what it's-

It's expensive. Oof, it's pricey.

It's not that bad.

Yeah, it's like 50, 60 bucks a month, isn't it? I think so.

How much? I pay like... I think I pay like 20.

Well, that's just for the online user stuff though, but you still buy the individual game-

No

... right? No?

Uh, it doesn't have every single game, but it has a lot of games.

And it doesn't have, like, the new stuff that the kids are gonna demand, right?

It did not have, like, FC 24, the new FIFA. Um-

It's not the Tommy Hilfiger or Polo of our day. You get that? Do you get that reference?

The Tommy-

Like when we were growing up, like everybody-

Oh, yes, yes, yes

... wanted a Tommy Hilfiger, and my parents would say-

Yeah

... "We can't afford Tommy Hilfiger."

I remember when I got my first Tommy Hilfiger shirt, I was like, "Wow."

Wow.

"I've made it."

"I've got the logo." So, um ...

And the boots, the Polo boots when they came out, you remember those?

Doc Martens.

And everybody would put, like, the waterproofing stuff on them. No, Doc Martens were before the Polo boots.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't remember Polo boots.

And then Doc Martens kind of got associated with, you know, kind of a, a different crowd, and so then people moved from, like, that to more of, like, a Polo boot, a little more preppy, in my world at least.

I love it. I can tell you that I bought my wife some Doc Martens for Christmas at her request, 'cause I think they're coming-

Wow

... they're making a comeback.

They're making... Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. That's good. All right. Uh, do you own a pair of cowboy boots, like a nice pair of cowboy boots?

I did, and they got stolen.

Whoa, somebody stole your cowboy boots-

Yeah

... from a truck?

I left my... This is my old truck. I left my old truck-

Oh

... unlocked out in the street-

Oh, okay

... at the old house, and yeah, they got stolen.

Wow. Yeah. So about two years ago, I bought my, you know, once in a lifetime boots, like the, the only boots you ever buy type of boots, and, uh, they have finally gotten to the point of break-in. I don't wear them very much, but they've finally gotten to the point of break-in where they're almost more comfortable than my tennis shoes.

Yeah. I, I'm at the stage right now where I am... Everything is just about comfort. So like, my shoes are pretty much all slip-ons, and they're all super comfortable.

Wow, you are so old.

Well, they're not like loafers.

Can we talk about your-

They're like nice shoes

... can we talk about your new obsession with, uh, pants?

Joggers.

Joggers?

Yeah. So we're gonna spend, like, here 15 minutes before we get into any meat.

Uh, no we're not. Yeah.

No, it's fine. Yeah. So I, I used to just wear shorts until I absolutely could not, like during the winter.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I'd just tough it out. I mean, how, how often am I actually outside, you know? Like a couple minutes walking in and out of the car. So I would just wear shorts, um, all the time. My son does the same thing. I, I don't know if he does it because I used to, but whatever. So this year I decided I'm gonna just break down. I'm gonna get some nice sweats, some nice joggers, like just have some actual pants that I can wear. And I gotta tell you, Patrick, I have never been more comfortable in my life. It is amazing.

So I-

And they're, they're not like... They're, they're like nice pants too. So like you can... I wouldn't wear them to, like, a fancy steak dinner, but you can wear them and not look like a ragamuffin.

Yeah. So I'm gonna-

So it's-

I'm gonna, I'm gonna give a, uh, like an adult warning here. Uh, no cuss words or anything, but just, uh, you know, talk a little bit about underwear. Um, have you, have you gotten into, like, more of the fancy, like, underwears at this point? Like, like, I've... Y- my kids wear Ethikas. I'm sure there are plenty of people listening that their kids are wearing Ethikas. But, you know, Ethikas are like a 15 to $24 single pair of, I would call them, what, like gourmet underwear? I don't know. They're typically long.

I don't think that you should talk about gourmet things- ... in the same sentence as underwear.

Pro- probably not. So but, um-

Although, I mean-

So I f- I first of all-

Yeah

... I first, you know, and, and we've talked about this a little bit, but I've been on like, you know, for what? Almost, like, a year and a half at this point I've been on, like, a, a healthy kick, right? And, you know, it's, it's, it's been good. But the first thing I bought, you know, because once you become, uh, less fat, you know, when you're super fat, a lot of times you can't buy these things. Like Etika didn't... You know, when I was at my, my largest level, I couldn't really get into Ethikas 'cause they were too small. So when I got less fat, I was able to fit into them. So that's where I started. So that's where I'm at. My son for Christmas decided that I needed a pair of Lulus. Uh, hopefully there are some Lulu club members out there who wear Lulu shorts. Uh, and he bought me five-inch Lulus, to which I said, "There's no way I'm ever gonna wear these." "They're too short." Da, da, da, da. So I put them on, and let me tell you, I love me some Lulu shorts.

Do you wear them out in public?

I go out in public in five-inch Lulus, yeah.

It just reminds me of, like, all the dads who used to coach Little League baseball back in the late '80s, early '90s. They'd all be wearing their, like, their bike shorts.

Well, it also... A lot of people who know me too, uh, will, will realize how much weight I've actually lost when I tell them I can actually fit into a pair of Lulus now. So that'll help, right? Yeah. Yesterday was a big day for me.

Is that when you got the pants?

No, it's not when I got the pants. Yesterday was a big day for me 'cause I got a new pair of jeans that is the same size of jean that I wore in eighth grade.

Wow.

Yeah. I was always kind of a big kid, you know? Always shopped in the husky section. Always told my mom, "I wanna wear Huskies." Right? So all that jazz. And then I became an offensive lineman, and I embraced the fat. That was, that was kind of my, my mantra for a long time. Then I decided I actually wanna live to see 60 years of my marriage- ... so I better get skinny again. But there it isUm, all right, hey, let's jump into-

Yes, let's jump in

... our first topic. What do you wanna start with?

So a couple days ago, came across an article. We will not be discussing the location of the article or the publisher of the article, but it was an article about how parking is killing a bunch of businesses, right? And-

In one of our 230-plus cities.

Yeah.

So take your best guess.

And so you, you know, you see these kinds of articles, and it's, it's always presented without any sort of, uh, challenge, right? You get a bunch of-

Mm-hmm

... a handful of business owners, and they tell you how bad things are, and it's definitely because of this one cause, and then that's the story, right?

Yep.

So we decided to take a look, uh, at this particular location, and what we found was it's not really the case.

No.

A couple of the businesses are having some down periods, but for the most part-

And really not even the business who was complaining in the article, right?

Right, yeah.

Yeah.

So, like, for the most part, these people are doing pretty fine. Um, I mean, they've got some challenges because there's development around but not quite there yet, and so, you know, it is what it is. But, like, they're not on the brink of, of bankruptcy, at least as far as their, their revenue numbers are looking at. And so, um, so I, I pitched this to Patrick, and I was like, "What do you do in this scenario?" Right? You're a city manager. You got a bunch of businesses complaining to local media, who's just lapping it up. What, what do you do when you know that you, you could refute it, but do you?

So I think it is pretty standard operating procedure, especially for vocal individuals who like to point a finger at a city, to find causation without correlation. And in this instance, that's exactly what you have. Does that make sense to you? Did I use the right statistical terms in your world?

I think what... Well, I think you're saying that you're trying to... You're confusing correlation with causation, but that's okay.

Either way, yeah.

I, I think the-

It's-

... the point remains.

Yes. Correct. Thanks, brain. Appreciate that.

You're welcome, P.

So... You're welcome, yeah. So while we continue to dominate the world, I believe from a management perspective, and I always took this, and I have a lot of conversations with clients and managers about this as well, but I believe it's extremely important for the city to wear these things on the sleeve, um, and to actually discuss it and talk about it, uh, and not just kinda sit back and take it. So when this occurs, I... You know, I'm not saying that the city should go out in the press and basically publicize that, you know, and press release this and say that this is false, and they're actually performing at this level because in some cases you may not even legally be able to do that 'cause it's protected data. But that individual should be, uh, invited to sit down and have a conversation with the city, and I think some of that data should be presented to that individual to prove up that, hey, at the end of the day... 'Cause I think a lot of businesses forget the data's available, or they don't know, right? We, we would see that all the time. Like, we would have a city that would, or a business that would come in and talk to us and say, "Well, we're just not really doing well, and we need some type of city incentive," or, "I need a facade enhancement grant," or, "I need a..." You know, just looking for free money, right? Just fishing for it. And we'd go, "Well, that's funny 'cause you're up 20% this year in sales tax, so is your non-taxable item sales dropping? 'Cause you pretty much sell everything in your store that's taxable." Um, but, I mean, we would run across that. And, you know, sometimes people-

Gas stations and, and construction zones.

Yes. Very common.

Particularly. Yeah.

Very common. We dealt with that, uh, pretty extensively on some major construction projects as we were preparing for some major commercial development that was coming in. Um, and yeah, I mean, absolutely the case. Um, I don't know why you're pointing at your dog in the video. So, but, um-

He was stretching. It was funny.

Oh, okay, yeah. So I, I think, I think it's, I think it's important to have those conversations, right? And, and I know that's, like, going out on a limb. Like, why, why would I go at and have this conversation with that person? But I think it actually has a positive impact over time. Those peop- people typically realize that, hey, you're actually paying attention to these things as a staff. And two, um, if you do it right, they actually feel like you care about them. And I've always felt like as a manager in today's world, and, you know, you read all the things that are going on in the management world today, it is extremely important for you to develop, uh, depth relationships with individuals in the community and business owners. Whether they're a resident or not, it's important to have that depth relationship. And in a larger city, that's hard to do as a city manager, but it's not hard to do from a city staff standpoint, right? Um, and I, I'll give you a prime example of this. Uh, just happened here locally. Uh, we had a fire down the street. The house burned. Uh, fire department came out, obviously pumped fire hydrants, which everybody in the city business knows you're automatically gonna get sediment in those lines for a little while because, you know, it, it dislodges a, a lot of stuff in the water lines. There was a guy who posted on my absolute favorite app, Nextdoor. I mean, I just love Nextdoor. It's my favorite. Uh, posted on Nextdoor and said, "Hey, I've... You know, anybody give me some advice on how to handle this? Like, the water's been coming out of my tap brown for a day." And, um, and there were some good posts. I actually went on there and posted as, as an ex-city manager because I think most people in this town don't know who I am anymore, which is beneficial. So I went on there and posted and said, "Hey, there was a fire down the street. Just pick up the phone and call the city. They'll come out, flush the lines," blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Uh, just realize it's probably gonna take longer than just a single flush to clear everything out. Like, it's, you know, if, if the pumpers were working really hard on that line, it's, it could take a little while. Um, but there was a resident who posted after me, who I have no idea who they are, but went on there and posted and just said, "I just wanna say I've always gotten great communications from the city, whether I reach out to them or they reach out to me. And if you go talk to this staff member and this staff member and this staff member, they'll take care of you." By name, right? I just thought that was really cool. I was kinda proud of the old city that I work in and still live in.Um, and I think in this instance it would be beneficial too. Like, that business owner would, before calling the press next time, maybe would call that individual staff member that had reached out to him. Uh, and I'm not sure we always do that. I'm not sure we always do a, a good job of having an active communication two-way street with residents outside of, like, automated communication, right?

So you see a benefit of doing this proactively?

I, I do.

"Oh, hey, I noticed that your business has been down the past six months. Is there something going on that the city can help with?"

100%.

Like you said, uh-

Yeah. Is there something we could do from a marketing standpoint? Is there something we could do to get you involved in some of our public events? You know, can we get you a booth spot here? Um, you know, we always do a great job of recruiting new businesses, right? Like, "Hey, here's a new, you know, $25,000, you know, entry 380 grant, uh, for your business to come to our community." But do we always do a good job of, like, um, really looking at that data on a business retention side to have that conversation? I think a lot of cities rely on a chamber of commerce to do that, but I think that chamber of commerce doesn't have access to the same data that cities do or EDCs do, right? To actually see business performance. Um, and so yeah, I think there needs to be a proactive program, uh, put in place to have those communications. I think that would be really beneficial.

Well, all right then. Uh, so what do you got for today, Pat?

So I wanna talk about two things, both of them coming out of the, uh, the legislative side of Austin, Texas. Um, uh, first I wanna talk about Prop 4, uh, a little bit, kinda give everybody some, some history here. There was a proposition on the ballot, uh, that came from, um, the Texas Legislature, and it was a way to increase the homestead exemption on residential properties and reduce property taxes across the state. Everybody across the state in an owner-occupied house, uh, and even people across the state that were in, uh, business properties would've seen a reduction in the overall property tax, uh, bill that they received this year. Um, it was a pretty substantial decrease, so for me personally, I think it was a little over $900, uh, less in property tax this year versus last year. And so we saw that substantial decrease. But, uh, not a scientific study at all here, but has anybody paid attention to homeowners insurance rates in the state of Texas, and what has occurred through the insurance industry side? Have you checked?

Mine don't, mine don't renew until April or May, so...

Okay. So I just got my renewal, and they are set up right around the same time, right? So property taxes are due, you know, December, January, and then, um, you know, the, uh, second half of... or the homeowner's insurance renews in, in January, on January 1 as well. And so yeah, we saw, I saw a really substantial increase in my homeowner's insurance. My homeowner's insurance went up almost $1,400. Uh, and the value... So, uh, just, just to kinda give you an indication of how much that increase of $1,400 was, I was, I was previously paying about, uh, 2,400 a year for homeowner's insurance. Now, I'm in the North Texas area, so I'm not in, like, the storm, hurricane, wind load areas of the, the Gulf Coast. Um, but I'm in the hail, you know, I'm for sure in the hail area of Parker County. The joke in Parker County is don't ever replace your roof 'cause the hailstorm will do it for you every 10 years, right? Um, and, and so certainly there's, there's gonna be those, those costs there. Um, but ultimately I think it was really surprising to me to see such staggering increases. Talking to my neighbors, talking to friends, uh, looking on chats and things like that, um, you know, we've seen a substantial increase just in the cost of owning a home, uh, and it's more than the reduction that we got, uh, from the state. So I just, I kinda wanted to bring that forward as, um, we've always said this, uh, when you try to manipulate a taxation system or you try to do something within a taxation system, um, it's always, there's always, like, this backfill that occurs. So, you know, like 10 years ago, cities got criticized pretty hard because school district taxes were compressed, and this was before they did the current compression system that's in place now. But, uh, you know, there was a, a pretty significant compression reduction that occurred. Uh, and this was r- like, the whole justification that the state gave for, uh, for caps on cities, for revenue caps on cities, um, was because with that school compression, basically cities tried to eat up that area so that people's tax bills were about the same, but cities could go ahead and recover real revenue. Now, I'm gonna be honest, I don't think that was a real thing. I think it was a totally political, you know, politically made-up thing, and I was on a committee for TML back then when we were kinda fighting that. Um, but the, the reality of it is is that I think we're seeing the same thing, right? The insurance industry in Texas saw an ability to not change people's mortgage payments.

Do you think so? I mean, been seeing reports about insurance increases all over the country. I don't think State Farm is even issuing new policies in California.

Yeah, Florida's the same way.

So I mean, is it un- it's not unique to Texas.

It's, it's not unique to Texas, uh, for sure that the cost of insurance is going up, and for sure the cost of materials is going up, which is gonna increase, you know, the cost of homeowners insurance as well. But the value of the home should be reflective of that, right? So if I'm gonna take a 30% increase or whatever that may be, I mean, in this case it's w- it was, like, 40%, right? So if I'm gonna take a 40% increase, shouldn't my home value rise by 20, 30% to kinda correlate to that increase-

Yeah, but-

... with the cost of construction and goods and all that type of stuff? I mean, it just-

So what does your, uh, increase look like over the past, say, five years?

Uh, so my homeowner's insurance, uh, increased, uh, it was, it was, like, 12% the year previous.

Mm-hmm.

Right? Um, the year before that I took about $100 decrease because I changed carriers.Um, and then I did go out to quote, uh, this year, and I was still... the carrier that I was with is still the cheapest out of the quotes that I got, at least with the coverage level that I have. So.

Mm-hmm.

You know, the other thing is is that under homeowners insurance now in Texas, a lot of, a lot of policies are, uh, especially for wind and hail, uh, you are gonna have a minimum deductible of 2%. There's very few carriers who have a 1% or $1,000 deductible now for wind and hail. So, um, so that's also a very interesting, uh, you know, point to be made.

Well, yeah, a premium hike and a deductible hike at the same time is kinda rough.

It is, yeah. Um, and so, you know, granted, it is, it is kind of an uncontrolled cost, and I just find it to be ironic, um, maybe a little perplexing, that it is a regulated industry in the state of Texas, yet they don't look at it the same way as, as what they claim uncontrolled cost in cities are. That, to me, is, is the, you know, the, the hypocritical side of what's going on in Austin right now. There's a lot of populism in Austin. We're gonna talk about something that kind of makes people feel a certain way, and that's what we're gonna go after. Um, and so we're seeing that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna kinda stay on this topic and go to one more issue that we're seeing this on as well. Um, and I actually spoke at a forum yesterday, uh, with some, uh, some offi- different officials, uh, from the North Texas region and, and really kinda had some conversations about appraised values and taxable values and some other things. But one of the things we were talking about in there I thought it was very, uh, interesting to, to bring up is, uh, public education in this biennium, a record, um, budget period, right, a record surplus. I think it was, like, it ended up being, like, 35 or 37, 38 billion, something like that, by the time we were all done. Public education did not get an increase in funding. And the reason public education did not get an increase in funding is because the governor refused to sign any bills that did not include voucher funding. So there is a $4 billion bill that is being held hostage at this point, vetoed and dead and, you know, not, not moving forward, right? But there's kind of like a-

Four Aggies National Championship hopes .

At least for this year, yeah, and Texas National Championship hopes for this year.

That's true.

Uh, and maybe, maybe next year if Sark goes to Alabama. But the... Hey, Elko has had one of the-

Sorry, I, I, I just realized I forgot to say anything at the beginning, so, uh-

Yeah

... with, with the college football season ending, I wanted to get my last little barb in. Anyways-

Yeah

... don't wanna derail, so please continue.

Well, you did lose a game that you should've won. Just gonna say that. Uh, clearly a game you should've won. Uh, but some interesting play calls at the end. Uh, you can't blame them for it, but at the same time, it was a little rough. All that being said, I... Right now, there's this $4 billion that is held hostage in this conversation, and the governor's response to this is, "I'm going to endorse anybody who's pro-voucher against incumbent Republicans." So you have this just absolute civil war that is occurring, especially in suburban or rural communities, within the Republican Party, which is fracturing it even more. Now, here's the deal. I don't wanna get involved in the politics of vouchers. I don't, I don't wanna get in the middle of that. I don't wanna... You know, look, e- we work for urbanized cities, we work for rural cities, we work for suburban cities, we work for all of them, right? I don't wanna get in the middle of that. But I will say, can you imagine if a city was holding on to a surplus of that size and just decided not to give a police officer a pay raise? Right? We're just gonna let them be below market. I mean-

Are you asking me, or are you just asking hypothetically?

No, I mean, I know how you f- I, I know how you feel about public safety funding in general, so... Um, but, I mean, the, the reality is, like, could you, could you imagine that a city would hold onto a surplus like this and not provide some level of service to the taxpayer? Like, they're just taking taxpayer funds. This is... These are m- these are monies that people have paid in property taxes. Wanna tell you that. Yes. Yes, because local property taxes, local M&O property taxes for school districts, you pay your local appraisal district. That money is sent up to the state, and then that money is sent back down from the state as a pure pupil or per student for- funding formula.

Right.

Right.

But the surplus that you're talking about is not property tax surplus.

Well, it, it-

It's sales tax largely

... it kinda, it kinda is because it's in, it's in the school funding side of, uh-

Yeah, but I mean, we actually-

So it's in the, it's in the same equation.

But we lowered the amount of property tax revenue coming in-

We did

... all things equal-

Yes

... and then replaced that, paid for that tax cut with the sales tax surplus.

We did.

Right.

But we did, we did not provide... That $4 billion of additional funds that-

It was just replacing.

No, it's not replacing.

No, no, all right. You're right. You're, you're-

So they did, they did fund the replacement

... yes. Yes.

Yeah, let's be fair to them for a second.

But-

They did fund the replacement

... that increase would not be based on property tax. It would be... because property tax has already been lowered with the homestead.

Y- correct. Property tax has already been lowered, but the funding formula for schools takes into account state level funding, right, which is sales tax, mainly sales tax generated, in most cases, and, uh, severance tax and other things. But, and then, um, you know, it takes into account what the local fu- at the, at the local level, what's gonna be brought in by property taxes, right? To me, that's a wealth tax in the state of Texas the way that that's set up. It's basically an income tax some way, somehow. It's a state level tax outside of a sales tax, in my opinion.

It's just, well, I mean, it's, I don't know that that's necessarily your opinion. It is a state level tax .

It's a state, it's a state level tax.

Oh, I, I see what you're saying. Yeah.

It's a state level tax.

It's effectively a... Yes, it's a s- yes.

That local legislators-

It's administered locally

... don't get, yeah, that they don't get yelled at about it, right? A local school board member gets yelled at it, and they actually don't have any ability to change that M&O tax rate, right? So if they make a change, they actually get penalized in the funding formula. So it's like a, there's a penalty that occurs if they try to lower the M&O rate. The state basically makes them backstop that funding loss that the state will, you know, would, would impact them. But my point is, I say all of this because there's $4 billion in funding out there, so what's gonna happen? We've already seen the conversations. I've talked to a few superintendents, uh, talking to some local school districts, uh, in my area and also just in North Texas in general. I think there's, like, 93 school districts in North Texas. Um, we've already-

That's so many.

It's a lot of school districts, yeah.

That's ridiculous.

But, I mean, how many cities are there in North Texas?

I agree.

But, you know, the funny thing, we could always do another podcast, we could talk about that, 'cause I feel like government is efficient at a smaller level. But, you know, that's more because of the connectivity that you have with a resident. Um, but all that being said, this money was left there. It's still there. It's basically just being added to fund balance. It's not going anywhere. And the legislature, the governor specifically refuses to call a special session to at least deliver this money to local, to local school districts. So what does that mean to the individual taxpayer, and why does this matter? Because you've already seen some school districts announce that they're in a deficit right now, this year, so their budgets are sitting in deficits. I'm sure if you look at your local school district, Chad, they're probably in a deficit this year using fund balance to cover expenses. And next year we're gonna see sizable deficits. So in my local school district, there's an expectation, and, and they have one high school, right? Just to kinda give you a size of district comparison. Uh, in my district there's an expectation that they're gonna have a $6 million deficit. So what does that, what does that mean? How are they gonna cover that gap? If they've already been in a deficit this year, are they gonna be able to utilize fund balance for that? Maybe in year one, but they gotta go two years, right, in the budget cycle until the state adds some additional funding. I feel like it is highly irresponsible of the governor to have that much of an impact on education just because he's upset about one single issue. He can't win on one issue, and so he's h- he's held hostage another issue. Um, and I don't know why voters accept that, I'm gonna be honest. Um, you know, I, I don't know what brand of politics that is, but there's going to be local jobs, local teachers, and attrition that occurs. And maybe it's not gonna be as drastic as it was when, you know, districts were declaring financial emergencies and all that type of stuff, but you're going to see less teachers get hired with larger class sizes and an actual impact on education in a post-COVID world where we're just trying to play catch-up, right? And I would say it would be different for me if the money wasn't actually there, right? It would be so different for me if the money wasn't actually there. But for me, it's you had the largest surplus in the history of Texas, and you can't even get along long enough to fund the constitutional requirement of the state. Like, the core constitutional requirement of the state is public education in Texas. It's, it's... To me, it's just how broken is the system at that point? Because he wants to look like a Florida governor who's running for president? Like, is he just... I mean, he just wants to be Ron DeSantis? I, I just, I don't understand it. This is probably the most political I've ever been on a podcast, by the way.

For sure, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm just kinda letting you letting you do it.

Yeah. I mean, but I, I just, I, I am... Look, I'm a political science major from Texas A&M University. I mean, we've never really talked about this, but they basically teach you how to work in politics at that school. And I just, I, it's unrecognizable to me at this point. It's unrecognizable to me that we would do something so detrimental to our core foundational principle just because we wanna fund an ability for people to go to a private school through a voucher program. Um, I just don't know how you tie those two things together. Like, if you wanna get your public policy priority over here, fine, but you're holding this hostage over here, and to me that's just, I don't know. It's gonna impact the education of millions of kids across the state of Texas because one person made a decision to hold it hostage. Such a terrible political decision to me. Your thoughts, Chad.

We've seen similar types of things. Do you recall during, uh, the COVID era with the defund the police stuff where I guess at fir- I, I think it, it turned into a law, but at first it was just, like, a, an executive order or legislative, or, like, an executive edict that if any city reduced their police funding at all -

Yes

... it had to, it had to be proportional with the total budget reduction, or they would potentially lose sales tax revenue.

Yeah. Populism gone wild.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I mean, let's just stipulate that there are legitimate scenarios where a reduction in a police budget is perfectly fine, um, and it is not the same thing as, quote, "defunding the police." But because of that one sort of populist argument, we just see this shifting of, I didn't even say shifting of power, but, um, uh, assumption of power in Austin over loc- localities. So I mean, is it surprising to me?I guess a little, but not, maybe not as much as it is to you

How do... But the question for me is how do we get so far off track in Texas compared to, like, historically how Texas operates?

Because everything in politics is a game. Like, we, we literally treat politics as a sporting event, and to the point where, like, the principles behind things don't really even matter that much. It's just my team win or does your team win. And so, I mean, you sh- over the past eight years, 10 years, you've seen the sides shift on so many issues. Like, parties change their beliefs over time, right? Like, those things kind of adjust, but, like, it's been rapid over the recent years. That's what I was like-

Oh, I would, I would agree with that

... right, but-

I mean, like, the voucher, the voucher debate for me is, is, you know, I've, I've actually made this comment to a couple of people. Would Ronald Reagan have just sent somebody $10,000 and said, "Go spend it how you wanna spend it"? Would he have used a public dollar like that in, in a manner that was that unaccountable? No way. I mean, it kinda goes aga- it, it kinda went against the whole rise of Reagan conservatism, which is every public dollar should be accountable and verifiable. That was, that was Reagan through and through. So, like, so I, I agree, like, the paths have changed, um, but to the point where it's actually gonna be detrimental to the education of a child in a classroom?

Okay, do you want my real opinion? We're, our education system is focused right now on what books are gonna be in libraries, right? Like-

Uh, I mean, yeah. I get it

... so to the point where we're, like, banning religious books because, like, Song of Solomon is gonna get banned from b- uh, libr- libraries if certain, you know-

Oh, 'cause we created our own enemy, right

... sort of, sort of high level rules are followed-

Got it

... about what is and is not appropriate for children. Um, so, like, no, I don't know where priorities are.

Man.

Like, is it reasonable for teachers to go ... Are they gonna go the full biennium without a pay raise?

Yeah. No, m- m- I mean, you know-

Yeah, I mean, to me, that's insane. Like, you would never get away with that. And it, I assume that teachers is the only, uh, public servants over which the state has authority that are gonna go two years without pay raises.

Well, it's, it's ... They're g- they're gonna go without it from a, uh, from a statewide standpoint. The local districts are probably gonna try to figure something out because of the competitiveness of, of school employees.

How?

Because-

With what money?

It's, it's more co- it's more complicated. They'll, they'll increase class sizes to hold onto, um ... Because the way the funding formula is set up, it's the incentives are goofy, right? Like, I mean, at, at some point, maybe we should bring somebody on who's kind of a, a pro at this from an education standpoint, 'cause obviously we're city guys, right? Um, and we've dabbled in helping some school districts on taxation analysis and things like that, and that's kinda what opened my eyes to some of this. And so there are some, like, really good school board members and superintendents out there that really understand this information. Um, but I will tell you just in my opinion, there's this, uh, there is a movement at the state level, at the TEA level-

Mm-hmm

... uh, the Director Mike Morath and, and crew, there's a movement to control localities in the education side at the state level just like there is in the city level, right? Um, and it's, it's a, it's a crazy scary thing. I wanna get back to one more thing, though, 'cause I want, I want to ... I wanna use this. It, the movie The Big Short. Y- you, you've watched that movie, right? You've seen it a couple times, I'm sure.

Yeah, I watched it a couple months ago.

So they're walking out of the casino in the movie The Big Short after they had made some deals and, and got a better understanding of, like, what the debt swaps were gonna do and all that type of stuff, right? And, um, I can't remember the exact actors that were in there, but the two guys were, like, celebrating what was going on, right? And maybe it was, uh, it was, uh, Carrell, uh, who, who was-

Steve Carell?

Steve, yeah, sorry. Steve Carell-

Okay

... who made the comment, like, "Hey, you need to..." Like, seriously, like, he's like, "You need to stop celebrating," right? Like, "This is..."

Mm-hmm.

You know? And then he, he told them, I can't remember what it was, but he said for so many, for, for so much uptick in unemployment, like you need to understand what's gonna happen, right? But for so much uptick in unemployment, uh, so many people are gonna die.

Mm-hmm.

Like, that's the s- the statistic there. For every increase in class size we have, there's a lower percentage of ability to read-

Kids who will graduate, yeah

... and graduate-

Who can, yeah

... which means there's a higher percentage of kids who are gonna die and who are gonna be incarcerated. That's why we have public education. If you remove public education altogether, it's gonna be more expensive for you. That's the whole reason why it's a constitutional requirement in Texas is because it's a, it is a public good, it's a public need in order to secure a, a-

Democracy

... fundamentally productive democracy. Yes. Like, where are those simple things getting lost in today's world? Where are they? But-

It's getting lost in the culture wars.

It is, but it's-

It, it's getting lost in, oh, well, this school is teaching this thing, or this school is allowing this kid to wear that, or whatever the case may be, and when you have power in a culture war, you, you use it.

But, hey, if you want vouchers, you're not losing the voucher debate because of Democrats in the state of Texas, guys. You're losing the voucher debate because you have Republicans who want that money to be accountable, right? They don't wanna just s- sign a che- you know, give a check to somebody and say, "Hey, here's your free money," right? They want wherever that money goes to be accountable for educating that s- that child to a specific point, because that's the public need. If privatization works and it's accountable, it works. Okay.But you should have to prove to those people, especially people in your own party, you should have to prove to those people that that dollar's gonna be accountable. And just saying, "Hey, you know what? Just trust me. Things are gonna be okay. Just trust me." I, I just, uh, man, I just ... Where have we gone? And what is the safety... Where, where is the s- you know, national politics, I, I think I was naive in thinking that national politics were kinda crazy, but man, Texas is Texas. And now I'm looking at it going, "Wow, we, we legitimately are sitting on $4 billion of money, and it's gonna have a substantially negative impact on our education system." And the money's there. You can see it, you can grab it, you can touch it. It's just you can't send it down because a governor won't do it. And that, folks, is my thoughts on today.

The rare deviation from college football/city government.

Wow. It's, uh, quite the soapbox moment for me there, folks. I'm sorry. But, um-

Yeah. I, I'm, I'm interested to see how much of that I'm gonna have to, uh, edit out.

Trim up. Yeah.

Um-

Yeah.

Well, I appreciate that.

Yeah. I mean, look, at the end of the day, it goes back to the same comment we made about the business owner who went to the press about, you know, their sales volumes, right? Source of truth in today's world is so important, people understanding that what they're fed is purposefully creating reaction. What they're fed, just like what they see on their social media feeds, is generating a reaction that increases your interest and your veracity to defend, right? They're trying to find the mama bear reaction in everything you do because that's gonna garner your vote. Um, they're not gonna give you all the details of why they did what they did, right? And the irony of this is there are candidates who are running for State House who endorsed Governor Abbott's opponent in the last election, who have now been endorsed by Governor Abbott for their re-election. And we're still with him.

Because they're with him on this issue.

Because they're with him on-

Yeah

... this one issue. Right? I mean, wow. That's, that's wild. That's ... It, it is a, it is a very, very, very wild day.

Yep. To me, the takeaway here is, and this is honestly something that we've really been talking about for at least three years now-

Mm-hmm

... if not longer, but the, the world that cities are operating in is becoming less stable. It's becoming, frankly, stupider. And ... But that doesn't negate the fact that s- that we, as city managers, like, we actually have things that we have to do, right? We have to, like-

Yeah

... run our city, take care of, uh, all of our services, make sure, you know, that our residents are provided the things that we're obligated to provide them, right? Meanwhile, the entire ecosystem that we're in is just shifting and, and, and changing, and i- i- in ways that we can't really even predict. And so it's really important for us to put ourselves in the situation where we can be, like, financially stable and just independent of all of that noise.

I'll never forget something Dr. Bland said to us in a local government class. Don't know, remember which one it was. But it was, "Make decisions that you believe are the best decisions regardless of whether it, your job is relying on it or not," basically is what he said. Right? I think your comment there is really well said. Put yourself in a situation where you are financially secure, like the most Dave Ramsey thing we could say. Put yourself in a situation where you're financially secure so that you can be the best city manager you possibly can be.

Yeah, 'cause it's gonna get wild out there.

It's ... Yeah. I mean-

At least if current trends hold.

Yeah. Absolutely.

I'm really interested to see what happens in two years when we realize that all of the, the sales tax surplus that we spent last year is not sustainable for all of the tax savings, uh, that we initiated.

Well, the big one is the, uh, if you, if you noticed the ballot language that was on the proposition for the homestead exemption for education, it said temporary, right?

Oh, yeah. Good luck calling back without some serious repercussions.

Well, I get it, but the reason they did that is because the fiscal note was only looking at, you know, basically a couple of years forward, right?

Mm-hmm.

And they're gonna have to be able to handle ... That's a compounding effect on that money. So everybody forgets that. They're like, "Oh, it's just this amount of money." Well-

Well, no, because it's a flat amount. It's not a percentage based exemption.

It's, it's ... No, on the exemption piece, it's a flat amount. But for the, uh, for the buydown, school districts, the rate buydowns that also occurred, the compression buydowns, those-

That part, yes. Yeah

... tho- those are continual.

Yeah.

Correct. So because when, when value goes up, the rate buydown grows as well-

Mm-hmm

... right, over years. So that, that's still going, uh, in today's world as well in the funding formula. Well, if, if people are still with us on this podcast, we probably ought to go ahead and wrap up.

Okay. S- sounds good. Well, uh, Pat, I hope you had a good holidays, good Christmas.

I did, really. Yeah.

And, um, it's nice to get back into the saddle. So we'll be back in, I guess, two weeks for yet another episode of your favorite podcast about local government.

We will be back in two weeks, uh, and, uh, staying on schedule just like we promised last year. Uh, 2024 is gonna be a crazy year for us for sure. Uh, we hope it's gonna be a great year for y'all as well. Uh, and, uh, please reach out if you have any questions. See you, Chad.

See you, Pat.