Virginia Seeks to Eliminate Tax Break for Confederate Heritage Group

The Virginia General Senate on Tuesday voted to remove a tax exemption for the United Daughters of Confederacy, a group responsible for funding monuments honoring Confederate soldiers and leaders after a Virginia Beach high school student highlighted the special designation and called on lawmakers to act, The Washington Post reported.

“I understood who the United Daughters of the Confederacy were and what they did and how they spread the myth of the Lost Cause, and I thought that we should get rid of [the tax break],” Simone Nied, 17, a junior at Kempsville High School, said in an interview.

The UDC, founded in 1894 by female descendants of the Confederacy, currently has the same tax exemption status held by churches, state and federal properties and non-profit colleges.

The Virginia House of Delegates last week voted on a measure to end those exemptions, but the Senate version was amended to strike property and real estate tax exemptions for two additional Confederate-related organizations.

“The financial subsidies provided to this organization … raises the questions about the values and priorities embedded in our tax policies,” Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, who sponsored the proposal in the House of Delegates, said recently during a House Finance subcommittee meeting.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will review the bills after they are reconciled.

“The governor will review any legislation that comes to his desk,” spokesman Christian Martinez told the post.

Each year, the UDC receives tens of thousands of dollars to maintain Confederate graves. The loss of a real estate tax exemption could mean upward of $53,000 for an annual tax bill.

The measure, a veteran Virginia political consultant told the Post, is “a punitive bill aimed at organizations that the party in power deems offensive.

“We should not be using the tax code to target groups we disagree with.”

The consultant added the bill “is particularly offensive because it comes from the same General Assembly that asked their ancestors to go to war.

“This is an organization that only does good in its community,” the person added. “It only gives, it does not take, and this bill is unfortunately a vulgar, unfair tax bill that discriminates against one group.”