State Watch

Spanberger signs bill ending tax breaks for Confederate groups

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by Max Rego - 04/14/26 7:18 PM ET

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by Max Rego - 04/14/26 7:18 PM ET

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) on Monday signed into law a bill eliminating tax exemptions for multiple organizations connected to the Confederacy.

Democrats in the Virginia House and Senate passed HB167 with vote totals of 62-35 and 21-17, respectively, earlier this year. The bill specifically removes the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, among other similar groups, from the list of organizations exempt from state property taxes.

The UDC, a nonprofit, was founded in 1894 by women “seeking to honor their family members and ancestors” who served in the Confederate military or contributed to the Southern war effort, its website states.

The organization also seeks to “preserve, protect and mark” Confederate monuments and “collect and preserve the material for a truthful history” of the four-year Civil War.

The UDC has divisions in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Two cities in Virginia, Richmond and Danville, were capitals of the Confederacy during the war. The UDC is headquarted in Richmond.

In 2025, the organization made more than $2.1 million in revenue, racked up more than $1.1 million in expenses and possessed $15.8 million in assets, according to tax filings published by ProPublica.

After the Virginia House passed the bill in February, UDC President General Julie N. Hardaway called it “viewpoint discrimination” that “blatantly targets” Confederate-linked organizations.

“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,” Hardaway said in a press release. “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.”

Virginia state Del. Alex Askew (D), the sponsor of the bill, praised the governor for signing it.

“Governor Spanberger’s signing of this bill is a proud moment and an important step forward for Virginia,” Askew, who is Black, said Monday in a statement, according to The New York Times.

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