Massachusetts voters are on track to decide a potentially record-setting number of ballot questions in 2026, and Gov. Maura Healey has already started to figure out how she’ll fill in the bubbles.
Healey said on Boston Public Radio Tuesday that she plans to vote yes on a question that would apply the state’s public-record law to her office and the Legislature. She plans to vote no on a question that would institute a statewide cap on annual rent increases.
“I will tell you that investors in housing have already pulled out of Massachusetts because they’re concerned about rent control,” Healey said. “I don’t want to see housing production stopped. We need to have housing production move forward. I also understand what’s driving rent control. I want to work together to do something that’s sensible, that creates more homes, builds more homes and lowers costs for people.”
The proposed ballot question would limit year-to-year rent hikes for most homes across Massachusetts to either 5% or the rise in cost of living as measured by the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. The cap would not apply to owner-occupied buildings with four units or fewer. In a carve-out that backers say is meant to encourage housing production, new buildings would be exempt for their first 10 years.
Supporters say they’re looking to discourage big rent increases that can push people out of their homes and neighborhoods.
Rent control is banned in Massachusetts under a 1994 ballot law. Legislation that would let cities and towns adopt local rent-control laws has languished for years on Beacon Hill.
When Healey ran for governor in 2022, her campaign platform called for empowering communities to enact local-level housing policies that suit their individual needs. “This may include local rent stabilization policies, zoning reforms to allow housing at greater densities, specific housing production supports, and more,” her campaign website said.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said last month that she wished the ballot question “had been just a pure local option” rather than a uniform statewide cap.
The rent control question is one of five initiatives that recently cleared a major hurdle in the long path to go before voters in 2026.
Secretary of State William Galvin announced last week that backers of those five questions — the others would roll back the legalization of recreational marijuana, lower the state’s income tax rate, allow voters to register on Election Day and implement non-partisan state primaries — had collected enough voter signatures to advance to the next stage of the process.
Galvin’s team is still reviewing another batch of questions, including one that would bring the governor’s office and the state House and Senate under the umbrella of the state’s public-records law.
The Legislature, Judiciary and governor’s office in Massachusetts are all currently exempt from the public-records law.
“I’ll vote yes,” Healey said of the records ballot question. “Provided that there are certain exemptions that we’ve talked about in the past.”
Before taking office, Healey said she would not claim to be exempt from the public-records law. Like her predecessors, she does respond to some records requests, and her office says those requests are evaluated “based on the public records law, established exemptions, and any unique obligations of the Governor’s Office.”
