Committee moves to retain ban on aftermarket windshield tinting, removes new numeric tinting provisions

On May 1, 2025, the Vermont House Committee on Transportation moved to keep current state law prohibiting applied tint on windshields and to remove proposed statutory language that would have set a 70% visible light transmission (VLT) standard for front glass, following testimony from the Department of Motor Vehicles and law enforcement about practical and legal hurdles to measuring and enforcing a numeric tint limit.

Committee members said the change aims to avoid imposing a technically difficult standard on inspection stations and police, while preserving a clear prohibition on aftermarket tint applied to the windshield.

Legislative Counsel Damien Leonard told the committee the DMV asked that last year's amendment be repealed because the federal regulation and the referenced ANSI engineering standard cover a wide range of glazing topics and do not provide a simple, enforceable measurement for routine vehicle inspections. "We don't really have a clear standard here that we can put into the inspection manual and expect an inspection station to enforce," Leonard said. He explained that last year's language had attempted to tie state law to the federal standard but that producing inspection guidance that a mechanic or trooper could apply reliably is difficult.

Leonard and others explained the current statutory prohibition (quoted in the hearing as 23 BSA 11 25) already bars material "painted or adhered on or over, hung in back of any transparent part" of windshields and the front side windows immediately to the left and right of the operator, with limited statutory exceptions (stickers, certain employer or emergency equipment, medical exemptions and dealer/test-drive labels). The inspection manual, an administrative rule, currently requires a vehicle be rejected if an aftermarket tint is applied to the windshield and advises vehicle owners that a tint applied to the front side windows "may be" a violation; law-enforcement officers can cite violations in the field.

Committee members focused on three options: leave last year's language in place (which references the federal standard and would require DMV to open rulemaking), repeal last year's language and return to the existing prohibition, or adopt an explicit numeric standard (often described at the meeting as 70% VLT, meaning up to 30% tint). DMV and a law-enforcement witness told the committee that adopting a numeric VLT standard would create immediate operational questions: where and how the measurement would be performed, who would hold and deploy calibrated instruments, and whether existing staffing shortages would allow timely measurement during traffic stops or inspections.

The committee discussed operational details raised in testimony: rulemaking on the inspection manual is an administrative process (subject to the Vermont Administrative Procedure Act and review by the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules) that can take months; the inspection manual already identifies the windshield as an item that should be rejected when an aftermarket tint is present; and removal of aftermarket tint is routinely possible (witnesses characterized removal as taking about a half-hour in many cases). Multiple representatives said a simple prohibition on applied tint would avoid the measurement problem and reduce burden on inspection stations and troopers.

At the end of the discussion a member moved to keep Section 38 of the draft bill and delete Sections 39, 40 and 41 (the sections that would have implemented the numeric standard and other related changes). Committee counsel was instructed to prepare striking language to accomplish that change. The committee conducted a straw poll and members signaled support for keeping the current statutory prohibition on applied windshield tinting and removing the new numeric-tinting provisions; the committee did not take a roll-call formal floor vote during the session transcripted here.

What this means going forward is that, unless the legislature or another committee takes further action, the law as currently written will continue to prohibit aftermarket tint applied to windshields (with existing exceptions) and leave side-window tinting treated as an advisory for inspection stations and enforceable by law enforcement as violations. If the committee or the full legislature later reintroduces a numeric VLT standard, DMV staff said the agency would need to open the inspection manual for rulemaking, hold public hearings, review comments and obtain LCAR review before a new measurement regime could be implemented.

Implementation questions flagged in the hearing that may return to legislators include: how to operationalize a numeric VLT standard (who measures and with what devices), the degree to which inspection stations are staffed and equipped to make measurements, and the balance between vehicle-safety considerations and law-enforcement visibility concerns.

Supporting details from the hearing: testimony described 70% VLT as the maximum light transmission manufacturers must meet under federal regulations (commonly summarized in the hearing as a 30% tint limit), noted that federal/ANSI documents cover many glazing types (from windshields to bullet-resistant glass) making a single inspection rule complex, and described the inspection manual's current reject/advice language. The DMV conveyed that repeal of the last year's statutory cross-reference would avoid immediate rulemaking and measurement requirements that the agency says would be difficult to implement now.

Next steps: committee counsel will prepare the draft strike language to remove the senate's numeric-tint sections from the bill and retain Section 38; the committee may revisit the issue in future sessions or when more operational detail and stakeholder testimony (DMV, inspection stations, dealers, tint installers and law enforcement) is available.