The final votes capped a day of political maneuvering. Yesterday morning, Weld issued a legislative proposal nearly identical to the one eventually passed.

But he filed his plan in defiance of the legislature's approval of a pre-existing plan, which would have given tenants greater protection. That plan--which the Senate yesterday passed, 21-16, following the House's approval last week--would have phased out rent control over two years for all elderly and disabled tenants, and for all tenants earning 60 percent of the HUD income guidelines.

Weld met yesterday with Rep. John E. McDonough (D-Jamaica Plain), who had shepherded the original plan through the legislature. Weld adamantly opposed two of McDonough's suggestions: the continuation of rent control boards and of vacancy decontrol plans, in which units are removed from rent control when their occupants leave. Boston and Brookline currently have vacancy decontrol programs.

Despite his complete political victory, legislators accused Weld of failing to compromise. Birmingham described the governor's plan as "pretty extreme." "It is not a good-faith effort to reach a compromise," the senator added.

Other legislators said they were strong-armed into accepting the last-minute plan. The Senate had "no practical political leverage," he added.

The city of Boston also condemned Weld's plan. "The cumulative effect of this basically creates nothing more than a fig leaf of protection," said Howard Leibowitz, director of inter-governmental relations for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

A Growing Rift

Yesterday's debate also highlighted a growing rift between small property owners and landlords.

Jon R. Maddox, the Cambridge attorney who wrote Question 9, said real-estate industry representatives had seized control of the rent control opposition. Real-estate groups gave the bulk of the campaign's funding. The Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB), for instance, gave more than $75,000 to the Small Property Owners Association (SPOA), which fought for rent control's end.

"They sold us out," Maddox said.

"They're laughing all the way to the bank while the people who did all the work for Question 9 get kicked in the ass," said Maddox, who owns a rent-controlled condominium in Cambridge. Maddox and the small property owners' group supported a rent subsidy program rather than a rent control phase-out.

Tenant groups also bemoaned the short respite left before the death of rent control.

"[The act] is an utterly mean-spirited instrument to decimate rent control and put at considerable risk many thousands of low- and moderate-income tenants," said Michael H. Turk, chair of the Cambridge Tenants Union.

But some industry representatives, who held day-long negotiations with the governor's staff and state legislators, said the plan provided a limited yet stable transition from rent control.

"It's step in the right direction in maintaining the intent of Question 9 and providing for an orderly transition out of rent control," said Edwin J. Shanahan, managing director of the Rental Housing Association, which includes state property owners who own more than 100,000 units.