Virginia Finally Cuts Off Confederate Organizations' Tax-Free Ride

It took far too long, but Virginia has finally done what should have been done decades ago. Governor Abigail Spanberger has signed into law a bill stripping tax exemptions from Confederate-related organizations,  a move that represents the culmination of "a yearslong Democrat-led push" to reckon with the state's deeply uncomfortable past as the capital of the slaveholding Confederacy.

The law's most significant target is the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization founded in 1894 that spent much of its history building Confederate memorials across the country,  monuments that became "flash points for protests" over racial injustice in recent years. That these memorials stood for so long, subsidized in part by taxpayer-backed exemptions, was itself an indictment of how slowly Virginia moved to confront its history.

The legislation passed the Democrat-controlled General Assembly,  62 to 35 in the House, 21 to 17 in the Senate,  after Delegate Alex Askew sponsored versions of the bill for three consecutive years. Three years of trying just to end a tax break. The bill was twice vetoed by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who claimed revoking exemptions would set "an inappropriate precedent." That argument rang hollow then and rings hollow now.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy's president called the bill something that "reeks of discrimination," a remarkable claim from an organization whose legacy includes memorializing those who fought to preserve slavery. Their Richmond headquarters, built on state-deeded land, sits on property valued at $4.7 million. The organization managed $2.1 million in revenue in 2025 alone. They can afford their taxes.

Governor Spanberger's action arrives against a troubling federal backdrop: the Trump administration has been "moving to restore" Confederate symbols stripped in recent years, including a memorial removed from Arlington National Cemetery in 2023,  a restoration reportedly costing $10 million.

As Delegate Askew rightly noted, this signing is "an important step forward for Virginia." It is. But given that the United Daughters' headquarters was set ablaze during protests following George Floyd's murder in 2020, and that Charlottesville's deadly Unite the Right rally shook the nation in 2017, one has to ask: why did it take this long?

Link: New York Times