Conduit Street Podcast

Converting empty offices into housing sounds like a straightforward way to address two challenges at once, but the financial and physical realities are often far more complicated. In Episode 6 of The Briefing Room’s housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Tim Karp of JPMorgan Chase to explore the office-to-housing challenge and what separates a viable conversion from a project that is unlikely to mo...

Every month, the Conduit Street Podcast separates the headlines that matter from the stories generating more attention than action. Let's take a look at where things stand as July comes to an end.

In this edition of News or Noise, Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Karrington Anderson discuss Maryland's upcoming special session on congressional redistricting, why limiting bill drafting isn't as unusual as it may seem, and how le...

Housing costs rarely rise because of one single policy, fee, or requirement. More often, they build layer by layer until the numbers no longer work. Capturing a Maryland icon, a housing advocate started to tag the layer-upon-layer of process as the "Smith Island Cake Effect."
 
In Episode 5 of The Briefing Room’s housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman ...

Public Health is about more than hospitals and healthcare; it's also about the policies that help people live healthier lives every day.

This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson and Karrington Anderson are joined by Laura Hale, State Government Relations Director for the American Heart Association, to discuss how counties can help improve community health through smart public policy.

Laura shares practical examples ...

Building affordable housing takes more than public funding. Private lenders and investors play a critical role in turning plans into completed projects.

In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room's housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Jordan Bishop of JPMorganChase to explore the private side of the capital stack - the financing that helps transform housing plans into completed communities.

The conversati...

Over the first two episodes of our housing finance series, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey explored how affordable housing projects are financed and why today's economic conditions make development more challenging. In Episode 3, the conversation turns to the public sector.

Joined by Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development Secretary Jake Day, Dom and Terry examine the state's role in housing finance, from tax credits a...

Instead of this week's regular Conduit Street Podcast, we're bringing you a bonus episode of The Briefing Room in response to a high-interest topic from our recent energy series.

Data centers quickly became one of the most popular topics in our energy series, so Dom Butchko and Kevin Kinnally sat down with Kelly Schulz, CEO of the Maryland Tech Council, to take a deeper look at one of Maryland's most complex policy conversations.

Tog...

Housing projects do not rise or fall only on land, design, or political will. They also rise or fall with the cost of capital, aka the capital stack. 

In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room, Dom Butchko and Terry Hickey are joined by Brian McLaughlin, entrepreneur and Board Member of the Baltimore Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, to examine how interest rates, borrowing costs, inflation, insurance, trade policy, tarif...

This month’s News or Noise dives into the biggest political developments coming out of Maryland’s June primary elections, and what they could mean for county government, legislative priorities, and the 2027 General Assembly.

Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Karrington Anderson break down the latest chatter around a potential special session on redistricting, key legislative upsets, major county executive turnovers,...

After wrapping our series on Maryland’s energy future, The Briefing Room turns to another defining challenge for counties: housing.

In Episode 1 of our new housing finance series, Dom Butchko is joined by Terry Hickey, Baltimore County’s Director of Housing & Community Development, to unpack the financial realities behind housing development. The conversation explores how affordable housing deals are assembled and ho...

This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Michael Sanderson is joined by Steve Hobbs, Executive Director of the Missouri Association of Counties, for a conversation on the issues shaping county government across state lines

From property tax pressures and housing affordability to short-term rentals, energy demands, data centers, and legislative term limits, Michael and Steve compare notes on the challenges and differing polic...

This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Dominic Butchko and Kevin Kinnally record from the Conference of Southern County Associations (CSCA) in Williamsburg, Virginia, joined by county leaders and policy experts from across the South for a discussion on the issues shaping local government today.

The conversation covers many of the same challenges counties face regardless of state lines, including housing affordability, land use, da...

In the final episode of The Briefing Room energy series, host Dom Butchko turns the conversation to Annapolis and the broader policy choices shaping Maryland’s energy future. Joined by Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, Chair of the House Energy Subcommittee, the episode looks at how rising costs, reliability concerns, new generation needs, grid pressures, and local land-use questions are driving the next phase of state energy po...

In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room, we continue our five-part energy series with a closer look at one of the fastest-growing and most controversial issues facing state and local governments: data centers. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Joe Lerch, Director of Local Government Policy with the Virginia Association of Counties, to break down what data centers are, why Northern Virginia became the center of the industry, and what Maryland...

We're back with another special edition of the Conduit Street Podcast, with the MACo team taking up several issues from this month's headlines, and trying to sort out which are the real stories (news) and which are more smoke than fire (noise). 

Hosts Kevin Kinnally, Michael Sanderson, and Dominic Butchko talk through data centers, special session rumors, property taxes, bond rating agencies, and more... and pin down what you n...

In Episode 3 of The Briefing Room, Maryland’s energy picture comes into sharper focus. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Public Service Commission Chair Kumar Barve to unpack one of the biggest questions facing the state: where does our power actually come from? 

From fossil fuels and renewables to nuclear power and imported electricity, the conversation cuts through the complexity of Maryland’s energy portfolio and get...

This week on the Conduit Street Podcast, Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson break down the recent vendor issue involving Maryland's mail-in ballots for the June 23 gubernatorial primary and walk through what county officials and voters need to know moving forward.

The conversation explains how Maryland's election system is structured, why the State Board of Elections decided to send replacement ballots, what safeguards exist to pr...

In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room’s energy series, Dom Butchko sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack the role of energy regions in Maryland’s power future. 

The conversation breaks down what PJM is, how it works with states and local governments, why the interconnection queue has drawn so much attention, and what improvements are underway. 

The...

In this episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, host Dom Butchko sits down with Senator Sara Love for a wide-ranging conversation on public service, legislative strategy, and the issues shaping Maryland policy. Senator Love discusses her path to elected office, her approach to preparation and legislating, and the priorities that guide her work in Annapolis. The conversation also explores her leadership on environmental issues, inclu...