By Andrew Brinker | The Boston Globe
A group of 12 mayors from across Massachusetts — including some of the state’s mostpopulous and renter-dense cities — said Wednesday that they will oppose the ballot question on track to appear before voters in November that would enact a rent control policy statewide, citing concerns that it would slow the construction of new homes and further stress already-tight municipal budgets.
The group of mayors — including executives in Worcester, Lawrence, Quincy, and Revere — as well as nearly three dozen other local officials, warned that the measure could ultimatelyhurt efforts to ease housing costs.
“What is especially ominous about the proposed ballot question is that it applies not just to the red-hot Boston housing market, but everywhere else in the Commonwealth,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said in a statement. “In Greater New Bedford and other regions where housing developers at times struggle to make their numbers work, it would effectively shut down housing production.”
Their position highlights a big challenge facing advocates of the rent control measure. While proponents hope angst over the spiraling cost of housing will carry the question to victory, some economists have warned it could effectively drive costs even higher, and that has at least some municipal officials saying the cons outweigh the pros.
One source of skepticism: The ballot measure would create one of the strictest rent restrictions in the US, limiting annual rent increases in many apartment buildings statewide to 5 percent or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. Over the last two decades, the average annual rent increase it would have allowed is 2.6 percent.