Landlords Have Raised Over $146,000 To Oppose Portland’s ‘Fair Rent’ Ballot Question

Maine Public | By Fred Bever

Published October 5, 2017 at 3:37 PM EDT

Portland landlords are digging deep to fight a “fair rent” referendum question on the city’s November ballot.

Backers of the lengthy item describe it as a temporary rent stabilization plan. Landlords are calling it rent control, and campaign finance reports filed at City Hall Thursday show the Say No To Rent Control group has raised more than $146,000.

Dozens of landlords, located in Portland and as far away as San Francisco, contributed as much as $15,000 each compared with a total of just over $3,000 raised by the Fair Rent Portland group that proposed the initiative.

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Business and Economy Your Vote 2017

Fred Bever

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.

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