A Vindictive Bill that Invites Retaliation
by James A. Bacon
I can’t decide which is more appalling. The fact that Delegate Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, would introduce a bill to revoke tax-exempt status for several Confederate heritage groups, or the fact that the measure won the support of 12 Democratic legislators to pass through the House Finance Committee.
Playground bully. ChatGPT
Both chambers of the General Assembly passed a similar bill last year, but Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed it on the grounds that it was unnecessary and divisive.
That’s putting it mildly.
The bill is vindictive. It sets a terrible precedent for using the state tax code as a weapon in the culture wars. And it invites retaliation. Virginia Democrats apparently can’t imagine themselves ever being in the minority and having Republicans wield the tax code to bully them.
Askew’s bill would eliminate the exemption for state recordation taxes for the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and erases the tax-exempt designation for real and property owned by the:
Virginia Division of the UDC
General Organization of the DUC
Confederate Memorial Literary Society
Stonewall Jackson Memorial
Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
J.E.B. Stuart Birthplace Preservation Trust
“It’s a good policy,” Askew told the House Finance Committee, reports The Virginia Mercury. “It’s not that we’re looking to take away anybody’s right to exist at all, but I think our code should match our values in Virginia.”
Match our values. Think about that. Virginia is a populous and diverse state. It has a wide range of sub-cultures, a wide range of partisan and ideological viewpoints, and a wide range of values. Askew presumes to define “our values” for everyone by deciding whose causes are worthy of tax-exempt status and whose are not.
“I’m hopeful that the governor will sign it,” Askew said. “I think it’s an opportunity for him to really show what he believes the future of the commonwealth should be, where we currently are, or what our future looks like.”
Show what our future looks like. Clearly, Askew has in mind a future that puts Virginia’s Confederate past in the rearview mirror. Many people share that value. But if Askew’s vision of “diversity” is one that excludes and discriminates those who don’t share his perspective on Confederate heritage, many are going to feel as if he is singling them out for vindictive punishment. And they’ll be looking for payback.
Askew and his allies have won the war over Confederate statuary and iconography. Now they want to grind the losers’ noses in their defeat. He’s like the playground bully who can’t imagine that the smaller kid he’s picking on today will undergo a growth spurt and be big enough to take him down next year.
Askew should give thought to the precedent he is setting. The re-election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States shows that the political wins can shift. Republicans ruled the roost in Virginia before, and with the political realignment occurring in the country, It’s not inconceivable that they will again. If they do, don’t be surprised if they start striking the tax-exempt status of nonprofit groups whose “values” they don’t share.
