The World Cup will go on here after all. Tournament organizers announced a deal last night to provide the town of Foxborough advance funding for security costs for this year's games at Gillette Stadium. The two sides said that the agreement means Foxborough will grant a required license next week for Gillette to host the games. WBUR's Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez and Beth Healy have more on the deal here. Now, to the rest of the news: Ballot business: The 2026 election is still eight months away, but Gov. Maura Healey says the potential ballot question to impose rent control across Massachusetts is already having an impact — and not in a good way. As WBUR's Zeninjor Enwemeka reports, the Democratic governor told local business leaders during a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce forum yesterday the prospect of the question alone "already halted" some housing developments in the state. "Investors are pulling out and have pulled out of deals in Massachusetts," Healey said. "They're building in other states." - What the question would do: Healey has expressed some support for letting individual communities implement rent control (if they were allowed to). But the currently proposed ballot question is more far-reaching . If passed, it would cap annual rent increases in every Massachusetts city and town at the rate of inflation or 5% — whichever is higher. It would make some exceptions, including for new buildings.
- What Healey's hearing: Still, the governor said she's personally heard from investors who are spooked. When the ballot question submitted the required signatures to move forward in the process last fall, Healey said she "got calls from six developers who lost their funding." "That's thousands and thousands of units, just in response, that aren't going to be built here in Massachusetts that were going to be built," she said. (Speaking with reporters after the forum, Healey declined to specify the developers, and her office didn't reply to a request for comment.)
- What's the alternative? Healey said she understands the frustration with high rents and housing prices, but argued the solution is increasing the supply of housing, "not rent control."
- Go deeper: Her comments came ahead of the release of a study this morning — commissioned by one of the state's leading rent control opponents — that warned the ballot question could "crush" local property tax revenue. WBUR's Steph Brown has more on the report here.
Here are a few other takeaways from event: - Healey also reiterated her firm opposition to the proposed ballot question to cut Massachusetts' income tax from 5% to 4% — which she said would primarily benefit high-income households and blow a $5 billion hole in the state’s $60 billion budget. "It's two-thirds of education funding in the state. Imagine that," the governor said. "It's all of the economic development grants that people get. It's a significant percentage of local aid. ... It's totally out of whack and totally counterproductive. Let's have a conversation about what's reasonable."
- Don't start budgeting for that $1,745 tariff refund Healey demanded from the Trump administration for every Bay State household this week. The governor said she hasn't heard back about it — and perhaps isn't holding her breath on it, either. "I don't expect to be paid, but I am trying to make a point: that's real money to people that they've had to pay over the last year," she said.
In other local news: Boston police are investigating after an officer fatally shot a man last night in Roxbury. As the Boston Herald reports, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said officers responded to a reported carjacking on Tremont Street and stopped the car on Linwood Square. According to Cox, an officer fired at the suspect as he ran the car into a police cruiser while trying to flee, against commands to stop. No officers were hurt, and the man was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Seeking shelter: The Healey administration is planning further cuts to Massachusetts' emergency shelter system. As State House News Service reports, officials intend to rebid contracts with providers to effectively shrink the system to 3,200 units. - There were just 1,522 families in the shelter system as of last week, a big drop in the wake of a series of new eligibility restrictions state officials added in response to a 2023 surge in demand. Local lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed concerns during a hearing this week about continuing to turn away many homeless families when the system has free capacity.
P.S.— NHPR has a new short-run podcast, "Safe to Drink," about a New Hampshire town's search for answers after discovering its water supply was contaminated by PFAS chemicals. WBUR's Bianca Garcia spoke to its host, Mara Hoplamazian, about the project and why it matters beyond just one town. Read the full Q&A here. (And if you like what you read, sign up for our CommonHealth newsletter for more health-related interviews and stories in your inbox every Tuesday afternoon.) | 
