Thank you for the opportunity to be heard. As a member and Officer of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), I am speaking in opposition to House Bill 568 and Senate Bill 517. The UDC has never veered from our philanthropic goals. Our five objectives remain as they were in 1894: Historical, Educational, Benevolent, Memorial and Patriotic. As a previous resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I am particularly concerned regarding the direction of your state. It is extremely troubling to hear the falsehoods about the UDC espoused by your own Representative stating we are “a public relations arm of the Ku Klux Klan.” In 2023, the Virginia Division awarded almost $12,000 in scholarships. Collectively, our organization awarded over $136,000 in scholarships last year alone. Donations in time and talent last year were almost 390,000 hours, items donated worth over $762,000 and monetary donations over $2 million. As you can see, our members are charitable and are focused on education. We are patriotic, donating time, items and money to veterans organizations. We support wounded veterans and active duty military. We say the pledge to the US Flag and sing the National Anthem at every meeting. We are proud Americans. We present military service medals and American Patriot medals to servicemen and women. In fact, I personally paid for a WWII medal and travelled to Powhatan in June 2022 to witness the Resolutions sponsored by Senator Ghazala Hashmi celebrating veterans Brigadier General James Jervey and Col. Alec Quintard. Thank you, Senator Hashmi! We seem to have the same goals of honoring our military. I helped with research for these men, who both bravely served our nation. General Jervy was Resident Engineer of the Panama Canal; Colonel Quintard survived the Bataan Death March and POW camps. Would I have researched all that had I not been in the UDC? Probably not. The UDC is keeping their memory “green”, as we do our own ancestors: men who responded to the call of Virginia. Before the May 2020 attack on our building, it was open by appointment for research purposes and tours. We have almost completed the repairs from that unwarranted, vicious and destructive attack and hope to soon be available for appointments again. To strip us of a tax exemption that YOUR legislature granted us on property that YOUR legislature deeded us reeks of a grab for power, money and perhaps real estate. To punish descendants of those who responded to the call of YOUR legislature to defend their state reeks of discrimination, based on misguided and biased opinions of our great philanthropic organization.

I am the Recorder General of Military Service Awards for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to contact you and the members of this Committee about SB 517, the attempt to remove the legislatively granted tax exempt status from the United Daughters of the Confederacy and others. While I am not currently a resident of Virginia, my family and I did live in York County while my husband was stationed there during his military career. I also have deep roots in Virginia, as all of my ancestors came from there, so I care deeply about the Commonwealth. I am writing against this bill. I see no sound legislative basis offered by the proponents of this bill. The only reasons given for its passage have been personal animosity and prejudice toward these organizations and the history they seek to preserve. These are not a sound basis for legislation. The UDC has committed no unethical or illegal act which would warrant the stripping of our tax-exempt status. Contrary to inflammatory claims, we are not a racist or white-supremacist organization; we are not affiliated in any way with any hate group, nor are we considered one by the United States Government. We are a philanthropic lineage organization which seeks to preserve the history of one of the most critical times in our Nation’s history. In the VA Code section 58.1-3607, which you seek to amend, Section B states, “Property designated to be exempt from taxation in subsection A which was exempt on July 1, 1971, shall continue to be exempt under the rules of statutory construction applicable to exempt property prior to such date.” This certainly implies that the organizations listed therein shall continue to be exempt. To pull tax-exempt status from these organizations after decades of being granted that status would do great harm to them and to their ability to carry out their intended purposes. To do so for no reason other than dislike of the historical era they represent or of the perspective they offer is most likely blatantly unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. I have reference before me to at least four U. S. Supreme Court cases in the last 40 years, which reference in their turn at least a dozen others. In these the Court reiterates again and again that a governmental entity may not use the tax code to punish entities with which it disagrees, and may not engage in viewpoint discrimination. Ladies and Gentlemen, this law is not based upon sound principles, or compelling government interest, but on negative perceptions and feelings about the organizations it targets. This is not a wise basis for legislation, and I fear will only bring embarrassment to the Commonwealth. Please vote against it.

Comments for SB517 VA House of Delegates Finance Committee Good afternoon, Madam Chairman. My name is Teri Siroki. I am the Recording Secretary General for the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Thank you for allowing me to speak today in opposition of Senate Bill 517. Through the 130 years of the United Daughters of the Confederacy’s existence, we have kept records of female descendants of Confederate Service members working for good in their communities through our 5 objectives – Benevolent, Patriotic, Memorial, Historical and Educational. In the years immediately following the war, these women raised money to support Confederate Veterans by building Veteran Homes, offering pensions, and seeing to the general well-being of these men. The UDC assisted in the care of their widows, and children. We have supported American Soldiers and Veterans during every war. We continue to offer scholarships to eligible students. We hold annual Memorial Services in honor of all who have served their country. The United Daughters of the Confederacy welcomes the descendants of all races and offers a platform for them to share their history. The Confederate Army was made up of a diverse group of people. Records indicate there were approximately 2,000 Jews, 7,860 Native Americans, 2,500 Hispanics, and an unknown number of Asians, who served in the Confederacy. In addition, between 3,000 and 6,000 African Americans, both free and enslaved, fought for the Confederacy and another 100,000 supported the Confederacy as laborers. The UDC collects and preserves the stories of all individuals to offer a complete picture of that time. The UDC Memorial Building, in the museum district of Richmond, preserves many artifacts and diaries from people living during the war. We are unique in learning many of the stories of the women through their diaries. They tell the stories, as only they can, of survival in a land under siege, a situation unknown to those living in the North during the war and to most Americans today. The UDC women put up monuments, not intended to glorify the Confederacy, but rather to honor their husbands, sons, and brothers, who never made it home. Many were buried in the fields where they fell, and their location was never known by their families. Virginians shared in this grief. The monuments were an expression of love that gave them a place to reflect on the lives of their family members while at the same time, beautifying a community which had been devastated by war. After 4 long years repairing the damage done to our building, we are again ready to offer appointments for research and tours. We look forward to continuing our philanthropic endeavors. Passage of Senate Bill 517 will hinder our ability to fulfill this mission. I respectively oppose this bill.

Madam Chair and Finance Committee members, my name is Susan McCrobie. I am Historian General of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. I speak in opposition of Senate Bill 517, a problematic piece of legislation. Should it become law, the UDC and this Legislature will be thrust into the courts for adjudication. I hold the historical records of the property you are seeking to dismantle Virginia’s Tax Code over. They include a property deed, written communications between Governor Battle, Attorney General Almond, and various leaders of the UDC. In 1952 the Legislature created its own tax-exempt code, relating to property for the benefit of certain organizations including the UDC, established in 1894 as a philanthropic heritage organization with objectives and work perpetuating the memory of Confederate Soldiers. We opened Richmond headquarters in 1957 with assistance from the Legislature and Governor; property tax relief and deed with clause binding the Commonwealth and UDC for life with an indirect ownership right. Last time I checked the government was exempt from property tax assessment. In 1956, AG Almond wrote to the UDC’s Miss Mann that this clause was one not deemed detrimental to the future interest and preservation of any organizations accepting donations of property from the Commonwealth. That statement is open to interpretation as I address this committee today. And while AG Almond expressed his warm regards to Mann and the UDC we have reached a crossroads, one he addressed, and I quote, “anxiety to the members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy – resort must be had to the General Assembly of Virginia for the passage of an act varying or removing this provision.” He was speaking of removal of the deeded property reversion provision and not raising anxiety levels with steps to remove property tax-exempt status. We were guaranteed by deed that the only way that the property would revert to the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I quote, “would be the failure of the grantees, or their successors, to maintain the building for the purposes and objects for which the said Confederate memorial association was incorporate.” Today you are engaged in work to create a property tax burden that threatens the continuation of purposes and objects for which our organization exists. The reasoning behind your work is the purposes and objects for which our organization exists. This bill is bad for our organization, for the people of Virginia with regards to her history as preserved in the museum and library archives of the UDC. I ask you to vote no to this piece of legislation.