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by Dave Soulia, for FYIVT.com
As Vermont’s climate goals grow more ambitious, so do the policy demands coming from its most urbanized county — Chittenden. Home to both the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tempore, and heavily represented on nearly every major legislative committee, Chittenden County has become the de facto center of political gravity in the state.
In fact, with so much of the state’s leadership living and working in or around Burlington, some Vermonters have begun to ask a practical question: If the climate crisis is as urgent as many lawmakers insist — and if emissions reduction is a top policy priority — wouldn’t it make more sense to move the State Capitol closer to where most legislative activity already originates?
The irony is hard to ignore. The same lawmakers who champion Vermont’s emissions targets, transportation mandates, and decarbonization plans also log dozens of miles each week traveling between Burlington and Montpelier. With the vast majority of committee chairs, legislative leaders, and high-profile advocates already concentrated in Chittenden County, a relocation of the Capitol might not just be symbolic — it could be logical under their own framework.
A County of One: Who Holds the Power?
Chittenden County, which includes Burlington and surrounding towns, makes up about 24% of Vermont’s legislative delegation — 7 of 30 senators and around 36 of 150 House members. But it holds far more than 24% of the power.
In the current 2025–2026 session:
- Senate President Pro Tempore: Phil Baruth (D/P – Burlington)
- Speaker of the House: Jill Krowinski (D – Burlington)
- Two of three members on the Senate Committee on Committees, the body that assigns all Senate committee positions, are from Chittenden County
- Speaker Krowinski assigns all House committee members and leadership — a power granted by House rules
- Chittenden County lawmakers hold multiple committee chairs and vice chairs in both chambers
While the Senate shares committee assignment authority among three members — the Lt. Governor, the Pro Tem, and one senator elected by the body — two of those three are from Chittenden County. In the House, the process is even more centralized: all assignments and leadership appointments are made solely by the Speaker, who is also from Burlington.
The result? While most counties have one or two members on top committees, Chittenden County places two, sometimes three, legislators on the very panels that shape the state’s fiscal and policy agenda: Appropriations, Finance, Housing, Environment, and Energy.
Chittenden County leads with 26 seats across major committees — more than three times the next-highest county, Washington. The top two counties, both among Vermont’s wealthiest, dominate legislative committees, while rural counties like Essex, Orleans, and Grand Isle barely register.
Decisions for All, Made by a Few
None of this is to suggest that Chittenden County lawmakers are acting in bad faith. But geographic concentration matters. Policymaking shaped by a narrow lens — urban transportation, college-town housing models, progressive economic theory — may not reflect the lived experience or priorities of Vermonters in Addison, Caledonia, or Bennington.
Major legislative initiatives, such as the Global Warming Solutions Act, Clean Heat Standard, and renter protection expansions, have largely been designed, championed, and passed by lawmakers clustered in Chittenden County. These policies have statewide impacts, yet are often crafted with limited representation from regions that will feel their economic weight most heavily.
In recent years, Vermont’s Legislature has grown more ideologically uniform — but also more geographically concentrated. With supermajority control, Democrats have had every opportunity to diversify their leadership ranks by region. Instead, they’ve doubled down on Burlington.
Symbolic, or Structural?
Proposing that the Capitol be moved to Burlington isn’t a serious logistical suggestion — Montpelier still stands as Vermont’s legal and historic seat of government. But the idea raises real questions: When power is so thoroughly concentrated in one county, when one region of the state determines priorities for all, and when lawmakers demand sacrifice in the name of environmental urgency — shouldn’t we also consider whether our governing structure reflects the values being legislated?
A move to Burlington would cut down on emissions, reduce long commutes, and better align our policy process with the priorities being pushed by Chittenden County leadership. Or, at the very least, it might remind us that geographic representation is more than symbolic — it’s structural.
Until that balance is restored, the Capitol may still be in Montpelier — but increasingly, Vermont’s future is being written somewhere else.
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Categories: Commentary, State Government
There was a reason why our “founding fathers” decided that the Senate should limit the number of Senators to two per state. We’re seeing it here in Vt. I’ll stick my neck out here and say that in this case, the forsight of the founding fathers of the United States was more accurate than those of Vermont. You want to fix the imbalance, there’s the model .
Let’s move the capital back to Windsor. Sick and tired of the power being only in the woke area they have destroyed.
If the prison was still open I’d say that Windsor was the perfect place for our legislators .
Nahhh….and too many words…..”emissions?” THIS OLD BURLINGTONIAN [Leunig’s, etc.] sez leave it in the mountains …in Montpelier. LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE.
Well you think Montpelier is in trouble today with all the leftist nonsense, moving it to Burlington, Vermonts top ” Cesspool City ” would really show the state there is no real leadership in Chittenden County, the gaggle of fools listed in the article just shows the cancer destroying the state for an leftist agenda…………Pretty Sad.
The Queen City, as we knew it has died.
…and the the state is dying.
When the founders set up the US Constitution, they had to strike a fine balance between states with large populations and more rural states. Otherwise, small states would not join the new union. So, nine states were needed to ratify the proposed Constitution, not just a majority. The large states got more Representatives in the House, which had the power of the purse, but each state, no matter how small, got two Senators. The Electoral College also gave small states more of a voice in elections, as every state started with a base of two Senators and one Representative. That is what Vermont has now. Most states followed the national model of a house based on population and a house based on counties with the same number of senators. The SCOTUS foolishly destroyed that model in a series of decisions that said the states could not follow the national example and required senators to be based on populations, not counties. That is why Chittenden runs Vermont.
Why don’t we make real the old joke “What’s the best thing about Burlington?” (A: That it’s close to Vermont)? So many of our legislators from more urban parts of the state weren’t born or raised in Vermont and thus have little interest in retaining our traditions and skillsets, so there might be mutual value in cleaving the Champlain Valley counties of Chittenden, Addison and Franklin off from the rest of the State. With truly representative leaders and historic values reinstated in the rural areas, the “real Vermont” away from the Champlain Valley might then be able to craft legislation favorable to retaining the middle class and we can more adequately prepare for the economic catastrophe that many well-heeled legislators seem to be unaware of. I’m only half kidding – the division between rural and urban values in Vermont is becoming more stark every day, and the self-righteousness of new-to-Vermont legislators who think they know what’s best for natives going back many generations needs to be addressed.
Really? Franklin county is urban? Not part of the “real “ VT? Lumped into some Champlain valley bloc of progressives? You want to “cleave” the only county that has all Republican senators and representatives from the rest of Vermont? Quick quiz… what county produces more maple syrup than all others? Not just in Vt. In the entire U.S. I’ll wait… hint: it’s not an urban center of latte drinking man bun wearing skinny jeans fans. It’s home to hardworking Vermonters who want a better life for their kids. What, exactly, is the mutual value you suggest is to be gained by slicing us off?
The declare independence from our (state or Nation) movements are entertaining at times, but your suggestion… sub optimal at best.
Take a ride this weekend in Franklin county and chase some steam among any number of sugar shacks boiling. I’ll be there working a press. Glad to have a chat with you. And yes that’s my real name.
Agreed – I hesitated in putting Franklin County in there for all the reasons you suggest, but figured that over time, the geography of the area and proximity to Canada might transform it away. But I like your spirit – it is definitely very much Vermont still – and good to hear from someone who will fight to keep it that way!
Moving to Burlington makes little sense. One of the biggest problem this state had is the concentration of wealth in Chittenden Cty. Moving the State House would further concentrate wealth and power in Burlington.
Clearly most of the state would not want that.
Also would we want to subject legislators snd citizens from the few safe parts of the state to their drug and crime problems? And clearly no one wants to contribute to the Marist tun city.