“Through this campaign, we’re making sure the voices of military families are heard loud and clear,” DCUC President/CEO Anthony Hernandez said. “Taxing credit unions may seem like a policy shift on paper, but in practice, it risks cutting off a critical support system for those who serve.”

With stirring instrumental in the background, the video’s narrator intones the mission of defense credit unions to provide low-cost financial services to service members, veterans and their families.

“But the tax exempt status that has kept costs low and benefits high for decades in now under threat.

“Revoking this tax status will limit financial choices for military families and veterans. It contradicts bipartisan efforts to expand access to financial services and inclusion, and forces small credit unions to shift resources due to new tax burdens, all of which undermines credit unions’ people-first mission.

“Let’s stand together to protect defense credit unions and their mission to serve those who serve us all”

Meanwhile, a blog posted Wednesday by Manish Bhatt, a lawyer and senior policy analyst for the conservative Tax Foundation, was highlighted Thursday on the website of the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).

Bhatt argued that credit unions no longer deserve the tax exemption.

“A tax preference originally designed to level the playing field now has the opposite effect, creating preferences for one class of financial institutions even though the distinctions between credit unions and banks are increasingly blurred,” Bhatt wrote.

“The original intent behind the tax preference was to level the playing field. Ironically, removing it now could do just that.”

Contact Jim DuPlessis at [email protected].