House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka speak with political analyst Jon Keller at a State House News Service/MASSterList event at the MCLE Conference Center on Feb. 25, 2026. Photo by Ella Adams | State House News Service

House Speaker Ron Mariano warned Wednesday against a ballot question to create rent control around the state, while Senate President Karen Spilka declined to take a position until later in the year.

At a downtown Boston event hosted by MASSterList and State House News Service, Mariano and Spilka talked with veteran journalist Jon Keller and continued to rail against the ballot question process in Massachusetts that this year could produce a wide range of new laws by the end of the year.

Asked about a measure to establish statewide rent control, Mariano strongly warned against the proposal.

“I just don’t think the rent control question that’s on the ballot is going to improve the ability for housing investors to get into the marketplace, I think the barriers are very high, the amount of money that it’s going to cost, it’s almost going to keep people from even entering into it,” he said.

He took issue with the way the question is written to apply one of the strictest rent increase caps in the country statewide.

“I think that the question that’s on the ballot really defeats the whole purpose of adding more housing to start, so we need to come up with ways, as the Senate president said, some new and inventive ways, because these old ways are not working,” he said.

Spilka deferred on taking a position until after the public hearing on the rent control question.