A burgeoning campaign seeking to revive rent control in some communities already faces stiff, well-funded opposition on policy grounds, and now it will need to withstand a constitutional challenge as well.
The Fiscal Alliance Foundation, a government watchdog and advocacy group that opposes rent control, urged Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office to halt the progress of an initiative petition that would replace a statewide ban on the practice with a new law allowing cities and towns to regulate rents, evictions and housing units set to leave the rental market.
In a seven-page legal memo submitted to Campbell’s office, Fiscal Alliance Foundation Chair Danielle Webb argued the potential 2024 question improperly combines multiple topics and wades into territory the Constitution rules off limits.
Article 48 of the state Constitution, which lays out the process for bringing initiative petitions to the ballot, requires measures to contain only “related” or “mutually dependent” topics.
Webb said the proposed ballot question led by Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly should fail that test because limits on rents and limits on evictions are too different to be considered with a single yes or no vote.
“Regulating rents is legally, practically, and substantially different from regulating evictions. Tenants may be (and often are) evicted for numerous reasons other than — and entirely unrelated to — nonpayment of or disagreements about rent,” Webb wrote.
Campbell’s office by Sept. 6 must certify or decline to certify all 42 measures newly filed this year. Those decisions are designed to reflect only whether a question fulfills requirements laid out in the state Constitution, not how Campbell or her deputies feel about the policy merits.
Webb presented Campbell’s office with a second point of contention as well.
She argued that granting cities and towns “plenary power” to regulate rents, evictions and removal of rental units from the market as the question proposes runs afoul of the Constitution’s ban on initiative petitions that infringe on “the right to receive compensation for private property appropriated to public use.”
Connolly said the committee is working with legal counsel to submit a formal response memo to Campbell’s office. He said Tuesday that supporters “fully anticipated these legal challenges, and we remain confident that our proposal meets all the Article 48 criteria for the Attorney General’s certification.”
Separately, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the City Council have been seeking approval from lawmakers to bring rent control back to the capital city.
The city’s proposed home rule petition would cap annual rent increases at 6% plus the annual change in the Consumer Price Index, with a combined maximum of 10%, while exempting newer units, owner-occupied buildings with six or fewer units and the first year of a new tenant’s residence.
— Chris Lisinski / State House News Service