House Speaker Ron Mariano on Monday pointed to voter disapproval of rent control in 1994, but poll results released Tuesday morning highlight support for the proposal in 2025.
The Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released Tuesday showed 62.6percent of Massachusetts residents support a ballot question that would cap annual rent increases in most rental units to no more than 5 percent across the state. Nearly 31 percent of respondents opposed the measure and the rest were undecided.
Homes for All Massachusetts last week said it collected more than 124,000 raw signatures, exceeding the 74,574 needed to continue along the road to the 2026 ballot. The group also said they did not use paid signature gatherers, unlike most of the campaigns that reported clearing the signature requirement.
Speaker Mariano criticized the initiative petition Monday, saying opponents “don’t see it as a solution to the housing crisis” and do not believe its passage will spur housing construction or investments.
Citing a 1994 ballot question and a 2020 House vote rejecting a rent control amendment, the Quincy Democrat said, “What has been the barrier for them finding out that people just don’t support it?”
Ballot questions came up during Monday’s private meeting with Senate President Karen Spilka, Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll. Asked whether any specific ballot questions stand out to him, Mariano told reporters, “We’re concerned about all of them.”
The poll found significant support for several of the potential ballot questions.
Pollsters found 77.6 percent support for ending or changing a stipend system that supplements the base pay of many lawmakers with additional compensation that’s tied to legislative responsibilities.
The Legislative Effectiveness and Accountability Partnership, the group behind the ballot measure, says legislative leadership uses stipends to deliver $5 million to favored lawmakers and the money is “loyalty pay” meant to keep lawmakers allied with leadership. Top Democrats have said the stipends reflect leadership responsibilities and allow lawmakers to think about the job “as a potential career.”
The poll showed overwhelming support for a proposal requiring the governor and legislature to be subjected to public records law. Results showed 83.6 percent support with just 7 percent opposed it and 9.4 percent undecided.
A proposed ballot question to cut the income tax rate by 20 percent – from 5 percent to 4 percent – by 2029 was supported by 66.8 percent of poll respondents, with 23.2 percent opposed and 10 percent undecided.
The survey indicated 63.4 percent support for a ballot question that would allow residents to register and vote on Election Day, a reform that has failed to make it through the Legislature in session after session.
Ballot question supporters must file certified signatures with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office next Wednesday as the next step in the initiative petition process.
The poll was conducted by the Suffolk University Political Research Center. The statewide survey of 500 residents from Nov. 19 to Nov. 23 was based on live interviews of registered voters in Massachusetts. The margin of error for the entire sample is plus or minus 4.4 percent.




