Youngkin halts bill inspired by Virginia Beach teen that would remove Confederacy-related tax exemptions

An amendment from Gov. Glenn Youngkin would halt a bill intended to remove real estate-related tax exemptions from several organizations with ties to the Confederacy, instead requiring the measure to undergo a study and another vote next year.

The governor’s recommendation would direct the Virginia Department of Taxation to examine the effect of removing the exemptions on state and local government revenues. It states the department will submit a report of its findings to the House and Senate finance committees by Nov. 1. The legislation would not take effect unless reenacted by the General Assembly in 2025.

Del. Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, and Sen. Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk, each carried the bill in their respective chambers. Askew called the governor’s proposal “unacceptable.”

“This is about fairness and fiscal responsibility,” he wrote Tuesday on social media. “We shouldn’t delay aligning our code with our values and vision for the Commonwealth.”

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The final version of the bill that passed the legislature would remove tax exemptions for real and personal property owned by the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the General Organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Confederate Memorial Literary Society and Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated.

In response to the governor’s amendment, UDC President General Jinny Widowski released a statement condemning the “continued harassment” of the organization.

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

The UDC is a national nonprofit dedicated to honoring the memory of those who served in the Confederacy. The organization’s website lists several priorities, including marking locations “made historic by Confederate valor” and preserving materials for a “truthful history of the War Between the States.”

Simone Nied, a junior at Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach, prompted the push to remove the tax breaks.

Nied previously explained that her father, an attorney, mentioned the tax exemption the UDC receives over dinner one night two years ago after running across it in the state code. It piqued her interest because she didn’t understand why the state would support an organization that glorifies the Confederacy. The teenager then reached out to legislators to share her concerns.

The General Assembly will reconvene next week to take up the governor’s vetoes and amendments.

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com