Virginia ends state property tax breaks for Confederate groups

Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a bill into law Monday removing tax breaks for multiple Confederate groups, after the state legislature passed the bill earlier this year.The state law specifically removes the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society from the list of exemptions to state property taxes, along with other similar groups, per The Hill.
The UDC is headquartered in Richmond, which served as the primary capital of the Confederacy in the Civil War. It also has chapters in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
UDC leader Julie Hardaway claimed in February, after the Virginia House passed the bill, that the legislation amounted to “viewpoint discrimination,” and could set a precedent that allows states to target churches that do not align with the state.
“Passage of this bill will set a precedent to open the door for other valuable historical museums to lose tax-exempt status and opens wide the door for legal action,” she said. “Is this simply a test case before moving on to bigger and better targets, including churches? To target any group who does not conform to the delegate’s way of thinking is un-American.”
The signing comes the same day as the “Virginia Day of Remembrance for Victims of Lynching,” which was a deadly tactic used to silence black Americans in the south during the Jim Crow era.
“Virginia Day of Remembrance for Victims of Lynching honors the lives cut short by these terrible crimes and reaffirms our shared commitment to justice,” Spanberger wrote on X. “We must make sure our next generation learns this history as we build a brighter future for all families in our Commonwealth.”
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage. 

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