“Rent control would devalue properties with crushing effects on our budgets that support teachers and education, police, fire, and public safety, and infrastructure maintenance and improvement in our cities and towns.”
Those are the words of Methuen Mayor David “D.J.” Beauregard, MBA, who today joined 11 other Massachusetts Mayors and three dozen City Councilors, Selectboard members, School Committee members, and County officials in publicly opposing the proposed rent control ballot question.
Today’s Boston Globe Media story by Andrew Brinker notes that local leaders like New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell and Worcester Mayor Joe Petty have deep concerns about the impact on new construction and housing supply. Those concerns are shared by Office of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey who has already seen housing investors and developers pull out of Massachusetts to build elsewhere due to the threat of a ballot question that would impose the nation’s most restrictive rent control policy on the Commonwealth.
As Mayor Jon Mitchell said on a Wbsm Radio Station interview earlier this year, “This is the classic ‘Boston knows better than everybody else in Massachusetts policy.’ It’s clear as day to me that this will not work here.”
Mayor Beauregard, Mayor Mitchell, Mayor Petty, and the Mayors of New Holyoke, Leominster, Lawrence, Braintree and more joined Housing for Massachusetts because they know that a one-size-fits-all mandate in every community in Massachusetts will have long-lasting and devastating unintended consequences for communities across the state.
Where do your local officials stand?
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