A Weekly State House Recap
by Maggie Lenz and Nick Charyk on behalf of Atlas Government Affairs
I’m Just a Prop
Many of us first learned about the legislative process from a cartoon that featured a sad little scrap of paper sitting on the Capitol steps. He sang about committee hearings, floor votes, and presidential vetoes. "Gee, Bill, you sure have a lot of patience and courage," the boy says. "Well," Bill replies, "I got this far. When I started, I was not even a bill. I was just an idea." (On a related note, the Saturday Night Live parody from the height of President Obama's executive order days is worth revisiting.)
Changing a state constitution is an even more arduous process. It is rigid and demanding to crack open a living time capsule every now and then, to adjust it to meet the present day.
A proposed constitutional amendment known as Prop 3, which would guarantee Vermonters the right to organize and collectively bargain, reached another milestone last Thursday with a public hearing at the State House.
Constitutional amendments in Vermont can only be proposed every four years, starting exclusively in the Senate. Each amendment must pass with a two-thirds Senate majority before moving to the House, where it requires approval by a majority of the entire membership, not just those present. The governor has no formal approval role but announces the amendment publicly and certifies the result. After legislative approval, the process pauses.
Lawmakers must face voters in an election and return to Montpelier, where the newly elected Legislature must approve the exact same amendment again, unchanged. Only then does it appear on a statewide ballot (the only statewide referendum Vermont permits) where voters make the final decision.
In 2022, Vermonters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 5, known as the Reproductive Liberty Amendment. Proposed nearly four years earlier, the amendment was a proactive measure designed to protect reproductive freedom amid growing uncertainty about federal protections. Vermont voters supported it by a wide margin of nearly 77 percent. Also in 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and Vermont’s constitutional protection proved not only timely but essential.
That same year, Vermonters overwhelmingly approved Proposal 2, removing language from the state’s constitution that had allowed slavery and indentured servitude under certain conditions, including for individuals under the age of 21 or as punishment for debts, fines, or costs. Many Vermonters were surprised to learn that such language still existed in the state’s founding document. The amendment replaced the outdated section with a simple statement that slavery and indentured servitude are prohibited in any form, and it passed with nearly 89 percent voter support.
In 2010, voters approved a practical amendment allowing 17 year olds to vote in primary elections if they turned 18 by the general election. In 1994, voters approved amendments to modernize gender specific language, replacing terms like "Freemen of Vermont" with the inclusive "People of Vermont."
Some of Vermont’s constitutional amendments mark significant social and political shifts, and others appear to be smaller, somewhat technical adjustments:
- 1836 Eliminated property ownership requirement for voting (applied mainly to white men).
- 1883 Updated administrative and judicial procedures, including making Secretary of State an elected office.
- 1913 (major modernization year!) Strengthened governor’s veto power, standardized election timing to November, required legislative votes to be publicly printed, enabled workers’ compensation laws, and formalized the title "justices" for Supreme Court judges.
- 1924 Granted women full voting rights, established methods for filling legislative vacancies, allowed criminal defendants to waive jury trials, and updated indentured servitude language to be gender-neutral.
- 1954 Allowed towns to jointly maintain schools, clarified rules about state officers holding federal positions, and reorganized state militia provisions.
- 1964 Clarified the state's duty to maintain public schools.
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1974 (another significant modernization year!) Reduced the constitutional amendment waiting period from ten to four years, established a unified state judiciary system, ended long residency requirements for voters, and reformed legislative redistricting.
Proposition 3 began its own lengthy journey early in 2024. After being introduced in the Senate, it cleared that chamber unanimously in March 2024. Thursday’s public hearing in the House, over a year later, was another step forward. Next, the full House will vote on May 1. If approved, Proposition 3 will still need another round of legislative approval after lawmakers stand for election in 2026 before Vermonters see it on their ballots later that year.
Curiosities: a weekly peek at the odd and intriguing happenings under the Golden Dome
Tom Evslin, his AI Avatar
Tom and the See-Through Dome
It’s not every day you find yourself asking a former Vermont Transportation Secretary/Stimulus Czar who served under Governors Richard Snelling and Jim Douglas, what his philosophical views are on the nature of reality. But at the end of my recent conversation with Tom Evslin, it felt comfortable to lob that one at him, joking it was a softball.
“It’s a basketball, not a softball,” Evslin shot back before answering (without much hesitation). “Reality is what we perceive.” In his view, when tools expand our perception, whether it’s a telescope, a microscope, or artificial intelligence, our understanding of reality itself changes and deepens. Our inventions don’t just help us see more clearly, they reshape how we understand our surroundings altogether.
Evslin’s perspective emerges from a career spent blending public service and technology. He served in Governor Snelling’s administration, he spent years in the tech world in charge of creating familiar products like Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, both of which, he half joked, are “all my fault.” Later, he helped launch AT&T’s WorldNet, which pioneered a breakup with hourly dial-up internet charges, and he founded ITXC, which routed international phone calls over the internet years before Skype. During the Great Recession Evslin returned to Vermont government as Governor Jim Douglas’s stimulus czar.
These days, Evslin insists he's retired, repeatedly promising his wife he is truly done. His latest project, Golden Dome Vermont, suggests his definition of "retirement" remains flexible.
Throughout his years of working in technology and public service, Evslin became acutely aware of how often the public misunderstands the inner workings of the Vermont legislative process, which is committee-centric. Most public attention, at best, goes to floor debates, he explained. But by then, decisions have often been made in committee rooms with only a handful of outside observers. Golden Dome Vermont is his attempt to open those doors wider, giving journalists, advocates, and everyday Vermonters meaningful access earlier in the process.
At the core of Golden Dome Vermont are what Evslin calls “Smart Transcripts”, detailed records of legislative meetings that directly link each segment of text to its corresponding video clip. Users visiting the website see a clear, easy-to-follow transcript. When they click on a specific portion of the transcript, the exact video moment of that discussion immediately plays. This allows anyone to seamlessly shift from reading the text to experiencing the conversation firsthand. By combining searchable text and linked video, these transcripts offer users the ability to fully grasp the nuances and context of legislative discussions, providing what Evslin calls essential human "richness."
I shared with Evslin my own preference as a lobbyist for reading legislative notes taken by people with service industry backgrounds. These are the people who have developed a heightened ability to read emotional signals, tone, body language, and facial expressions, which are subtle but game-changing insights in political settings. In my experience, this intuitive reading of people is what sets a truly great note taker apart from someone who transcribes mechanically, almost like AI. I asked Evslin if he saw AI developing these bartender, spidey senses anytime soon.
Amazingly, terrifyingly, horribly, wonderfully: He answered that some of the technology behind his transcription tools can already measure emotional intensity in speech, and may even attempt to identify specific emotions. Analyzing video footage for body language and deeper human signals, he said, might soon follow. Still, he was careful to acknowledge that no technology can fully substitute for direct human perception, even as the gap steadily narrows.
As we wrapped up, Evslin asked earnestly if there was anything I thought might improve Golden Dome Vermont. I admitted (somewhat sheepishly) that my own lack of imagination about technology makes it difficult for me to picture improvements. Perhaps some of you can imagine them better? If you have suggestions or are simply curious, you can find more from Tom Evslin and contact him here: https://blog.tomevslin.com/
Tom Evslin greets Senator Joe Biden, alongside Governor Jim Douglas and his Secretary of Civil of Military Affairs Heidi Tringe.
Author’s note: I asked AI to create an image specific to this interview.
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