Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka held a long meeting Monday to discuss priorities for the year ahead, with emphasis on a record number of ballot questions piling up for 2026.

"Forty-four of them is a huge number of ballot questions. It makes you wonder how easy is it for special interest groups to pay people to get signatures?" said Mariano. "Are we becoming California?"

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"When you look behind the curtain and see who is paying for the signatures, it is specific groups, and I think it needs to be more transparent," Spilka told reporters.

Leadership expressed skepticism over an effort to revive rent control through a ballot measure.

"There are people in Mas

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