https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/12/04/massachusetts-ballot-questions-2026-galvin
Without further ado, here’s a look at the dozen proposals we could be voting on next fall:
- All-party state primaries: If passed, Massachusetts’ state elections would be like how they do things in California, Louisiana and Boston: candidates of all political parties would be on a single ballot in the primary and then the top two finishers would advance to the general election. It would take effect in 2028.
- Government transparency: With last year’s legislative audit ballot question stuck in legal limbo, Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio is backing a new proposal that would make the governor’s office and Legislature subject to the state’s public records law, with some exceptions.
- Rent control: You’ve probably already heard a lot about this one. This proposal would repeal Massachusetts’ ban on rent control and limit yearly rent increases across the state to the rate of inflation or 5%, whichever is lower. There are exceptions for newer buildings and smaller, owner-occupied buildings.
- Conservation fund: Conservation and nature groups are pushing this proposed question to earmark half of all state sales tax revenue from sporting goods, recreational vehicles and golf courses for a nature conservation fund. The money would be dedicated to things like parks, trails and green spaces.
- Legislative stipends: This proposal by Jonathan Hecht, a former state lawmaker, would change how the big stipends for State House leadership positions, such as being the chair of a committee, are calculated. It would also require that lawmakers do a certain amount of work to get the money.
- Union rights for public defenders: This question would let members of the Committee for Public Counsel Services unionize, following the recent public defender work stoppage over pay rates that spiraled into the dismissal of hundreds of criminal cases.
- Same-day voter registration: Proposed by Galvin, this question would allow Bay Staters to register to vote at the polls on Election Day. It’s something that 23 other states allow, but similar proposals have failed on Beacon Hill.
- Minimum lot sizes: This proposal would require cities and towns to allow single-family homes to be built on lot sizes as small as about an eighth of an acre (provided it has a little room between the road and water/sewer access). It’s an effort to make it easier to build more affordable “starter homes.”
- State income tax rate: Business groups are pushing a question that would gradually cut the state’s income tax from 5% to 4% by 2029.
- Chapter 62F: Another business-backed proposal, this question would change the state revenue surplus cap law to account for money from the millionaire’s surtax and effectively make it so that taxpayer rebates are triggered more often.
- Pot shop repeal: This question would repeal the 2016 ballot law legalizing recreational marijuana sales, though adults would still be allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis. Existing recreational marijuana shops would have to convert to medical marijuana shops or sell their inventory to them.
- Gun law repeal: Remember the gun control law Gov. Maura Healey signed in the summer of 2024? Gun rights advocates collected enough signatures later that fall to put a referendum on next year’s ballot in an attempt to repeal the law.