An early look at Massachusetts' potential 2026 ballot questions

Housing

• Rent control: A proposed question — backed by a coalition of tenants' advocacy groups — would repeal Massachusetts' ban on local rent control laws and set a statewide limit on annual rent increases of 5% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The new push comes after state lawmakers have declined to act on proposals by individual cities (including Boston) to bring back some form of rent control. The local real estate industry is already gearing up for a fight.
• Minimum lot sizes: Another question aimed at reining in the cost of housing would require cities and towns to allow single-family homes to be built on lot sizes as small as 5,000 square feet — or roughly an eighth of an acre. (As of 2023, more than half of the communities in eastern Massachusetts required lots for single family homes to be at least 1 acre, according to The Boston Globe.)
• Local control: A quartet of proposed ballot questions by a Rockport resident and critic of the state's MBTA Communities Act seek to prevent state involvement in local zoning and make it harder for communities to change their zoning laws.

Taxes

• Tax rates and rebates: A coalition of business-backed groups, including the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Pioneer Institute, are pushing two tax-related ballot proposals. The first would gradually cut the state's baseline income tax from 5% to 4% over the course of three years. The second would tweak the state's Chapter 62F tax revenue cap law (remember that from 2022?) to lower the threshold at which rebates are triggered.
• Gas tax: Veteran signature gatherer Harold Hubschman got nine different ballot proposals certified, including another attempt at phasing out the state's gas tax.

Elections and government

• Same-day registration: A proposed ballot question by Secretary of State Bill Galvin would bring Election Day voter registration to Massachusetts — a reform that activists have long sought but failed to get through the State House.
• Jungle primaries: A group called the Coalition for Healthy Democracy is backing ballot proposals to implement all-party primaries (similar to Boston's preliminary election system) for statewide offices in Massachusetts.
• Public records: The same group is also behind a certified ballot proposal to expand the state's public records law to the Legislature and governor's office.
• Lawmaker stipends: Former Massachusetts state representative Jonathan Hecht is leading a bipartisan ballot effort to eliminate or reform the controversial stipends that Beacon Hill lawmakers get for holding leadership positions.
• Voter ID: Meanwhile, the group behind the failed 2023 push to put a voter ID requirement on the ballot is giving that effort another try.

What else?

• A number of seemingly long-shot ballot proposals also cleared the certification hurdle, including a Mass Audubon proposal to create a special conservation fund, an attempt to shut down the state's recreational marijuana industry and a half-dozen proposals by a group called Citizens Against Eversource. You can read the full list of certified ballot petitions on Campbell's website.