RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – Lawmakers voted to take away tax breaks for Virginia’s division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy — but Gov. Glenn Youngkin wants them to do it again in 2025 before the state can cut off the tax benefits for the group.
The Virginia General Assembly passed Democrat-led legislation to remove recordation and property tax exemptions for the state’s division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a women’s nonprofit group headquartered in Richmond that helped erect Confederate statues and memorials and backed efforts to stop their removal.
Two identical bills from state Sen. Angelia Williams Graves (D-Norfolk) and Del. Alex Askew (D-Virginia Beach) made it out of the Democratic-controlled legislature to Gov. Youngkin’s desk with some Republican votes.
Youngkin recommended changing the bills to require lawmakers to pass them again in 2025 to end the group’s exemptions for the state’s recordation tax on real estate.
Sen. Williams Graves told 8News in a phone interview Tuesday that she’s “disappointed that he [Youngkin] is not owning the history of these organizations.” She added that she thinks the governor is looking to “buy some time” on having to sign the measure.
The governor did not propose to change the legislation’s provision on ending property tax exemptions for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the group’s Virginia division, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated.
Jinny Widowski, the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s president general, called the legislation “an unfair, discriminatory tax bill, selectively targeting charitable and historical entities that support Virginia tourism, scholarship assistance and promote respectful dialogue about our shared past.”
Youngkin also added an amendment to require the state’s Department of Taxation to study state recordation tax exemptions and their effect on state revenues.
The study would also review “exemptions to real and personal property tax by classification or designation prior to and on July 1, 1971,” and how they impact local revenues. The study would be sent to leaders of the General Assembly’s two money committees by Nov. 1.
Lawmakers will reconvene on April 17 to consider Youngkin’s amendments. The original bill goes back to the governor for a signature or veto if either chamber of the General Assembly doesn’t agree to all of the governor’s amendments or at least one.
If both chambers agree on one or more amendments but not all of them, the bill will go back to the governor’s desk with the approved amendment. With the bills only getting a few Republican votes, Democrats don’t have a two-thirds majority to pass the original bill.
Del. Askew, who carried the House’s version of the bill, said he and others acted after they were alerted of the tax breaks the United Daughters of the Confederacy was getting by a high school student in his district.
In a Jan. 23 House subcommittee hearing, Del. Askew said the legislation doesn’t challenge the group’s right to exist and was not about free speech or taking down monuments, but “about fairness and the financial priorities” of Virginia.
Askew, who said the money from the group could help fund schools, mental health initiatives and other programs, added that providing financial subsidies to a group “with ties to the KKK,” draws questions on “values and priorities” embedded in Virginia’s tax policies.
The United Daughters of the Confederacy owns its national headquarters on Richmond’s Arthur Ashe Boulevard, known as the Memorial Building, a property with an assessed value of just over $4.4 million.
With the city having a real estate tax rate of $1.20 per $100 of the assessed value, the group’s annual property tax bill could be more than $53,000 if Youngkin signs the legislation.
On its website, the group acknowledges that Confederate statues are seen as “divisive” by some and “simply represent a memorial to our forefathers” to others.
“We are grieved that certain hate groups have taken the Confederate flag and other symbols as their own. We are the descendants of Confederate soldiers, sailors, and patriots. Our members are the ones who have spent 128 years honoring their memory by various activities in the fields of education, history and charity, promoting patriotism and good citizenship,” the group’s website states. “Our members are the ones who, like our statues, have stayed quietly in the background, never engaging in public controversy.”
When Confederate statues were being removed across the country, including in Richmond, in the wake of racial justice protests in 2020, the group and its local divisions backed and pursued challenges to keep them up.
According to ProPublica, the United Daughters of the Confederacy reported $1.41 million in revenue and $1.26 million in expenses in 2022. The nonprofit’s Virginia division reported $235,000 in revenue and $86,600 in expenses that year.
“The continued harassment of our ladies and our mission will not deter us from the charitable work that we do. The General Assembly of Virginia is the entity that required us to exist when they asked our ancestors to go to war and defend their borders,” Widowski’s statement continued. “The biggest difference between the men we honor through our organization’s efforts and today’s politicians is, when the going got tough, our ancestors were willing to die for Virginia.”
Sen. Williams Graves said she hasn’t spoken with Del. Askew about how they want to move forward with the legislation during the April 17 reconvened session.
Williams Graves added that the United Daughters of the Confederacy is entitled to its opinion and that the bill doesn’t say it shouldn’t exist, only that it “shouldn’t be celebrated or benefit from tax benefits from the state.”
A spokesperson for Youngkin did not respond to a request for comment by publication.
