Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury – A majority of Virginians supported a referendum expanding the state Constitution to provide real estate tax relief to surviving spouses of service members who died in the line of duty.
The Constitution only applied to 100% disabled veterans and surviving spouses of soldiers killed in action as determined by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Virginia’s unofficial election results show that 93% of Virginians supported the amendment through a referendum that was on the ballot last week.
“It’s humbling to see the overwhelming support and to be able to help just over a hundred or so families,” said Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, who carried the amendment in the Senate. “I think people, once they read it and understood it, they got why it was so important.”
As part of the requirement to make any changes to the Constitution of Virginia, McPike’s amendment had to pass successfully by a majority in both chambers and will have to do so again in a second session after a general election.
He said the expansion of the law will now also cover the spouses of service members, who, for example, may have died in a training accident.
Under current law, the property tax exemption applies only to the spouses of service members who are either 100% disabled or who were “killed in action”— a specific Department of Defense term indicating that the death occurred due to enemy action.
Mitch Rubenstein, state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Virginia, said in a statement that the organization appreciated the votes in support of the amendment.
“We are grateful to the voters for expanding the property tax exemption offered to surviving spouses of service members killed in action to spouses of any service member killed while honorably serving this nation,” Rubenstein said.
In 2022, lawmakers passed legislation carried by Del. Kathy Tran, D-Fairfax, that gave localities the authority to provide property tax relief to certain surviving spouses of service members who died in the line of duty (LODD).
With the passage of the amendment, Friends of the Virginia Military Survivors & Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP), an advocacy group for ensuring the state’s tuition beneficiary program is sustainable, said it hopes that localities will continue to offer the tax relief benefit in addition to the statewide tax exemption.
“We hope that, for enactment, the amendment enabling language will include the ability for local authorities to continue or choose to provide additive relief, by establishing or continuing a special tax classification for LODD Survivors, to include Survivors of LODD Suicide,” Friends of VMSDEP said in a statement. “Enabling language should include property tax relief when the property is held in a revocable trust.”
The group also said it is seeking to enable language to allow survivors who lost their spouses in service prior to 9/11 — when Line of Duty Determination Investigations were first conducted in order to render Line of line-of-duty death Determination Letters — to provide alternative qualifying documentation. In addition, the organization said it is asking for language to recognize and include partial ownership for the purposes of proportional tax relief.
“Going forward, Friends of VMSDEP will advocate for and support legislation that provides statewide parity between tax relief for Survivors of LODD and survivors of the 100% disabled,” the group said.
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