Both houses of the Virginia General Assembly have passed bills that would eliminate unusual tax breaks for a prominent Confederate heritage group with long ties to the state, presenting a difficult decision for Gov. Glenn Youngin.
At issue is legislation that would remove tax exemptions for the marble headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a group founded in 1894 for women descended from Confederate soldiers and long central to Virginia’s culture wars over Confederate heritage and the state’s racial history.
Since at least the 1950s, the group, whose stated purpose is to honor Confederate ancestors through monument preservation and charitable work, has been exempt from paying property taxes and recording taxes, which are levied when real estate sales are registered with the public register.
Supporters of the legislation say the tax breaks, passed during segregation, reflect a time when the state government and Confederate heritage groups had a close relationship. The group and its allies say the legislation could challenge the agency’s ability to operate and could jeopardize its Richmond headquarters.
On Monday, the state House of Representatives approved a bill that would revoke the exemptions while also eliminating property tax exemptions for two other federal heritage entities, the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Inc. and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society.
About six members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy were present in the gallery and were introduced before the vote by Republican House member Wren Williams. A similar bill passed the Senate last week.
Both bills were passed largely along party lines, with Democrats in support. Since neither passed by margins close to the two-thirds vote needed to override a veto, Mr. Youngin, a Republican, is likely to decide their fate. Both bodies are controlled by Democrats.
In an email, Christian Martinez, a spokesman for Mr. Youngkin, said only that “the governor will review any legislation that comes to his desk.”
House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, said the legislation reflects change for the better in Virginia.
“If the governor vetoes these bills, I wouldn’t be surprised, but it would be very disappointing,” Mr. Scott said in an interview after the bill passed the House. “But I hope he won’t.”
In an earlier interview, he said it was important to revoke exemptions from “organizations that continue to promote the myth of the romantic version of the Confederacy.”
The United Daughters of the Confederacy did not respond to requests for comment. In an online public comment opposing the Senate bill, an organization official said the legislation “threatens the continuation” of the group’s activities.
Frank Earnest, a spokesman for the Virginia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a separate but like-minded group, said the legislation was “a political vendetta and must be stopped.” He added: “If people knew what these ladies were and what they really did, instead of what they say, there would be no controversy” over their tax breaks.
According to the book “Dixie’s Daughters” by Karen Cox, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the United Daughters of the Confederacy erected statues and tried to vindicate the Confederacy by teaching that it fought for states’ rights, instead of slavery. In the 1910s, the group endorsed materials honoring the Ku Klux Klan.
The group’s influence has waned in recent decades, and many of the statues it commissioned, including the Confederate Memorial at Arlington Cemetery, have been removed. The headquarters building was set on fire after the 2020 killing of George Floyd, and the group has spent $3 million on repairs and renovations, he says.
In an online statement, the organization denounced any group that “promotes racial division or white supremacy.”
As a nonprofit group, the organization is exempt from federal income taxes. According to its 2022 tax filing, the organization had $1.4 million in revenue and $1.2 million in expenses.
This year, the headquarters’ total property value was estimated at $4.4 million. A representative with Richmond’s property assessor confirmed to Virginia Public Media that if the legislation is signed, the property would be subject to the city’s regular tax rate, which is $1.20 for every $100 of assessed value. The tax can exceed $53,000 per year for the property.
Efforts to revoke the team’s exemptions began when a Virginia Beach teenager heard about them at a family dinner.
Simone Nied, 17, had developed an interest in the Confederate legacy after the 2020 social justice protests and reading the book “Robert E. Lee and Me” by Ty Seidule. At a dinner in 2022, Ms. Nied’s father mentioned that he found the United Daughters of the Confederacy exemptions in the state tax code through his work as a lawyer, she said in an interview.
Ms. Need, who would later become an intern for former U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Virginia, began reaching out to lawmakers and connecting with Mr. Scott, then a Democratic member of the House of Representatives. In 2023, Mr. Scott proposed a bill to repeal the exemptions, but it failed in the House, which was then controlled by Republicans.
But the legislative calculus changed when Democrats took control of the House in last November’s election and Mr. Scott became Virginia’s first black speaker.
The section of the tax code on registration tax lists categories of entities that are eligible for exemptions, such as hospitals and corporations. The Virginia division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is the only organization that stands out by name. Alex Askew, the Democratic House member who introduced the current House bill, said in an interview last week that it didn’t make sense for the group to receive the registration exemption.
In 1950, Governor John S. Battle signed a deed giving the group land in Richmond for a headquarters. The deed stated that if the group could not maintain the grounds and building, it would forfeit its right to the property, “including all improvements thereon,” and the property would revert to the state. Two years later, the Legislature approved the organization’s exemptions from state and local property taxes and the Virginia Division of Registration Tax.
In an online public comment opposing the Senate bill, Susan McCrobie, the group’s historical strategist, said the exemptions and the act had been extended together by the state, so revoking the exemptions could jeopardize the act. If the terms of the deed are violated, the property, including the building, could fall to the state.
He said that if the bill becomes law, the organization and the legislature “will be taken to court for trial.”
Ms McCrobie did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Mr Askew, who introduced the House bill, said it was not an attempt to stop the group’s charitable work. “It’s not about trying to take them down,” he said. “It’s just more about what we want to express in the Commonwealth and how our policies reflect who we are at the moment.”
