It’s been a news item lately that Governor Abigail Spanberger has ended a program that was giving tax breaks to Confederate museums and monuments. (Not that this was the biggest news item about Virginia’s executive branch this week.) Some people are complaining about this.
I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of this. I’m just wondering what the program was before its cancellation.
What tax break did these organizations get? What did they need to qualify for the program? Was it specifically set for Confederate memorials or could a group running a memorial for some other historical period qualify?
Reading it, it wasn’t like there was a broad “tax break for confederacy” law. There’s a bunch of property tax breaks for various museums and groups that have been added over the years. The update removes certain confederate groups.
Well, it reads like a property/land tax for just Confederate sites.
I believe we cannot erase our Civil war or sweep it under the rug.
It happened. There are battlefields and sites that should be protected.
Tax exemption? Maybe not.
We shouldn’t honor particular individuals for their contribution.
But the museums and battlefields should be preserved.
The particular institutions having their special exemptions taken away are:
the Confederate Memorial Literary Society
the Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Incorporated
the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
the General Organization of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
The UDC is organized as a 501(c)(3) entity, and is a particular conduit for Lost Cause mythology. The Confederate Memorial Literary Society ran what is now the American Civil War Museum (formerly the Museum of the Confederacy) - I think they may be separate entities now (Wikipedia says the MotC transitioned their holdings from “shrine” to “museum” back in the 60s). The Stonewall Jackson Memorial, Inc. - well, there’s no Stonewall Jackson statue on Monument Row now, so I don’t know why the corporation set up to take care of it needs an exemption anymore.
There are two museums dedicated to Stonewall Jackson in Virginia - one in Winchester, where he had a headquarters early in the war, and one in Lexington where he lived before the war (the latter owned and operated by VMI). It sounds like there’s nothing against these in the bill.
Personally, I think George Thomas should have a statue on Monument Row in Richmond, but who’s asking me?
So if I’m reading the law correctly, there is a large group of organizations that cover various historical periods (including the civil war) that are getting this tax break. And what the Governor did is remove four specific organizations from the list.
Was there a specific criteria for getting on the list or was it just a legislative/executive decision?
The law’s list of Virginia tax exempt organizations, linked in the OP, shows that they continue to exempt the Robert E. Lee Memorial Foundation. Googling, I see that this is the old name for what is now the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, and that their main activity is upkeep of a tourist attraction, the Stratford Hall Historic Preserve, the home of the Lee family of Virginia.
That last link seems to me normie rather than lost-cause-oriented. I may be cherry picking a bit, but this seems to me a clear rejection of lost cause framing:
Then I looked at the United Daughters of the Confederacy web site. My impression is that they are defensive about claims of being lost cause oriented, as here:
and:
So the United Daughters of the Confederacy weighs in on controversial political questions, while I did not spot the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association doing that. Maybe this could provide a viewpoint-neutral distinction for the state of Virginia lawyers to defend this law when challenged on first amendment grounds, as seems inevitable.
The only use for those flags and symbols is hate. That’s what they were designed for, and what they’re always used for. What do they think those symbols are for?
They wouldn’t describe themselves as Lost Causers but they were instrumental in spreading that false narrative. I frequently interacted with them when I worked at a museum they used to meet at. While they were nice enough, they respected the building and helped raise funds, like a lot of Civil War people, they’re crazy. The Sons of Confederate Veterans were much more in your face with the Lost Cause narrative.
Well, you can say that about any Flag that flys over a Military in pursuit of someones land, to enslave and or kill people. Or to nation build in their name.
Any Flag. Any military or government.
I’m trying to think of one that doesn’t. Even Switzerland has a warring background. Now they are “Armed neutrality” status.
I’m wondering what practical affect this will have on the UDC as they’re already a non-profit organization which provides them with some tax exemptions at the federal level. I’m barely familiar with my own state’s tax code let alone Virginia. I can only assume Virginia has some tax breaks for non-profits as well.
I just looked at the Virginia law again. It concerns taxes on recording deeds and property transfer. On its face, so long as the lost cause organizations do not buy or sell real estate, they are unaffected. However, the Daughters of the Confederacy is claiming this is going to force them to pay property taxes. Maybe they are wrong there. But maybe there are local ordinances that reference state exemption criteria for local taxes. If so, it will come to a lot of money.
The new Virginia law seems to me hard to defend on first amendment grounds. It sounds like discrimination against the lost cause viewpoint. As I mentioned before, Virginia attorneys could possibly find some distinction between normie nonprofits, and the lost cause organizations, other than viewpoint. But if this does get to SCOTUS, I suspect that even some of the liberal justices will be inclined to rule in favor of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
I guess we could discuss whether, in an ideal world. the first amendment should have a carve-out for racist viewpoints. But unless someone can find a highly defensible non-viewpoint justification, I lean against the new Virginia law.
Sure. But goign to war and killing Union soldiers was predicated on the Confederacy’s desire to own people. They knew slavery’s days were numbered and wanted to preserve their peculiar institution.
Well, yes, they could eliminate the tax breaks completely.
Or they could allow it just for broad categories, such as places of worship and organizations providing programs for children.
Or they could exclude based on ongoing illegal activity, like racial discrimination. But the Daughters of the Confederacy have been allowing in the small number of qualifying Black members for a long time.
The closest precedent might be the Bob Jones University case. But Bob Jones didn’t just say they were pro-discrimination – they actually discriminated.