WHILE CERTAIN FACTIONS of the Boston City Council appear to be coming around in support of Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed middle-of-the road rent control home rule, stakeholders outside the chamber may not so easily come together.

On The Codcast, Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, and freshman Boston Rep. Sam Montaño agree the city has a problem with rising rents, but disagreed on how to deal with it.

During more than 10 hours of recent hearings, administration officials, renters, developers, and city councilors alike agreed that many Boston renters are rent-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. Wu’s proposal would cap rent increases at 10 percent annually. Vasil’s group says that approach is the wrong way to go and is spending $400,000 to fight it.

“The difficulty is doing business in Boston is really hard,” Vasil said. Developers, landlords, and lending institutions have “told us that if we’re in a rent control environment and if there are government price controls in the city on projects, they’d rather be elsewhere. And we’re concerned about that, because it’s not gonna solve our problem for the people of the city. That’s our biggest issue. I think we all are in agreement what the housing problem is. I think it’s just philosophy on how we get there is the biggest stumbling block.”

Montaño said exemptions built into Wu’s policy, including owner-occupied buildings with six units or less and a 15-year exemption for new construction, should offset that concern. “I think it’s not an accurate representation of what’s happening on the ground,” the Jamaica Plain representative said of Vasil’s assessment. 

When it comes to Wu’s proposal, Vasil said, his group’s forceful response is not because a 10 percent cap is unfathomable on its face.

“When you take a look at the proposal, you would be hard pressed to say that it was not reasonable,” he said. “But what we’re seeing play out right before our eyes is what has played out nationally – proposals that are reasonable and then the push to make them unreasonable.“

During her campaign, Gov. Maura Healey said rent control is “up to communities to decide,” but there hasn’t been much appetite from State House legislative leaders to give local officials that flexibility.

Montaño and Rep. David Rogers of Cambridge introduced one of several rent stabilization bills on Beacon Hill this term. Some of those bills would set a specific annual rent cap, like Montaño’s proposed 5 percent, though another bill proposed by Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge would simply lift the statewide ban on rent control passed through voter referendum in 1994.

The local option bills, which would let cities and towns implement a rent control and tenant protection package, and the Wu proposal do not set baseline rents. “We’re not trying to tell anyone what their rent is,” Montaño said, just set reasonable limits on how much it can increase once a tenant is in place.

Boston city councilors are holding a working session Monday afternoon to begin proposing adjustments to Wu’s proposal. 

Although Healey has indicated rent control is a local issue, economic “competitiveness” as a state has become the watchword of her administration. Vasil and Montaño differed on the impact rent control may have in the state. 

Vasil sees a future where developers flee and housing stagnates. He would rather see tax breaks and incentives for landlords offering below-market rate rents. The local option is no comfort to him. “Local option rent control could turn into utter chaos from a statewide housing policy perspective,” Vasil said. 

Montaño says the current system is already creating unacceptable inequities.  

“We’re perpetuating poverty when we ask folks to move because we put up these huge rent increases,” she said. “So, if we limit the amount that a rent increase can go up, we are allowing folks to start to build wealth and that builds a stronger Commonwealth across the board, because we’re allowing folks and communities to say, ‘I have stability in this community.’”

JENNIFER SMITH

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Cigarette cases: The Supreme Judicial Court takes up a tough legal issue today, hearing two cases from people who sued cigarette companies for wrongful death because a loved one died from smoking, only to be turned aside in lower courts because the deceased failed to file a personal injury claim within three years of being diagnosed with the condition that ultimately cost them their life. The gut-wrenching cases turn on interesting legal issues of irrationality and unfairness. Read more.

Means-tested fares: Gov. Maura Healey backs some limited funding for means-tested fares, which should move the issue off the policy back burner. Read more.

Ceiling panel fix-up: The MBTA is removing corroded ceiling panels at Harvard Station after one fell from the ceiling and luckily didn’t hit anyone on the platform. Read more.

OPINION

HDIP under fire: Chelsea officials, taking aim at their Gateway City counterparts and the Healey administration, question the embrace of the Housing Development Incentive Program. They say we don’t just need housing, we need affordable housing. Read more.

Make oil, gas firms pay: Cabell Eames of the Better Future Project backs a Fair Share amendment dealing with oil and gas companies, making them pay for the cost of dealing with climate change. Read more.

Pushing back: Monte Pearson and Sue Donaldson of 350 Mass and Fix the Grid push back against the defenders of natural gas. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

A group of employees is charging that the state convention center authority is discriminating against Black employees, vendors, and guests. (Boston Globe) 

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

Corean Reynolds gives a sneak peak of her responsibilities as Boston’s new czar of nightlife. (Dorchester Reporter)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Federal COVID-era SNAP benefits are coming to an end, reducing for about 1 million Massachusetts residents the amount of money they will have for food. (WBUR)

Massachusetts and Rhode Island operators of addiction treatment clinics Recovery Connections Centers of America have been charged in federal court in Providence for millions of dollars of health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, money laundering, and obstruction. (The Enterprise)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Telling the Coastline Elderly Breakfast that “Social Security is under attack,” US Rep. Bill Keating pushed a bill that would lift the cap on Social Security contributions. (New Bedford Standard-Times)

ELECTIONS

Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who is weighing a run for president, says Donald Trump will not be the party’s nominee. (Boston Herald)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and vaccine skeptic, says he is considering a run for president. (New Hampshire Public Radio)

Massachusetts Republican Party chairwoman Amy Carnevale says the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance is nearly done with an audit of the party’s books and spending. (Boston Herald)

EDUCATION

Priya Tahilani, the superintendent of schools in Everett, is up for contract renewal tonight and the outcome is very uncertain, even though she has won an award from the state association of superintendents for her work. Could politics be at play? (GBH)

Northern Essex Community College is shut down on Monday because of a cyberattack last week. (Eagle-Tribune)

About 100 New Bedford High School students staged a walkout on Friday to protest last week’s special election victory of Shawn Oliver to a city council seat. The students demanded an apology and explanation for social media posts he made years ago that they say were homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic. (New Bedford Light) 

Things like the “Barney Blowout,” a pre-St. Patrick’s Day orgy of alcohol, may be why it is hard for the University of Massachusetts Amherst to shed the “Zoo Mass.” moniker that’s been attached to it for decades. Saturday’s installment of the rite, observed at off-campus parties, saw 28 people taken to area hospitals for treatment of alcohol intoxication. (Boston Globe)  

Unions at UMass Amherst say more than 100 state jobs are being illegally privatized. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

TRANSPORTATION

The Healey administration is giving the go-ahead for the MBTA to tear down a staircase at a  Milton stop of the Mattapan trolley line, despite objections of town officials. (Boston Herald)  

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Boat traffic through the Cape Cod Canal has been temporarily halted as endangered North Atlantic right whales make their way through the waterway. (Boston Globe)  

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Former public safety officer Romance Brown has sued Harrington Hospital, saying in a federal lawsuit he endured racial slurs and abuse on the job. (MassLive)

A budding social media influencer is placed on unsupervised probation after firing gunshots at an ex-partner’s shirt as part of a video she shot last year. (Salem News)