The late David M. Stanley (1928–2015) was a leader in Iowa policy circles for decades. Stanley served in both the House and Senate of the Iowa Legislature, including leadership positions; he was chair of the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Majority Leader. Stanley was also the Republican nominee for United States Senator in 1968 and 1974. His public service did not end once he left elected office in 1975 either, as he went on to found and direct numerous organizations that contributed to the conservative movement in Iowa and across the country.
During his time in the legislature, Stanley championed fiscal conservatism. Throughout his public life, he argued that government spending was the factor behind higher taxes. Whether for the benefit of politicians or special interests, the taxpayer is often sidelined in favor of more government spending.
“It is easier for politicians to yield to the noisy special interest groups when the taxpayer keeps quietly paying the bills,” he stated. To ensure taxpayers would have a voice in Des Moines, he formed Iowans for Tax Relief in 1978. He later founded the Tax Education Foundation to provide policy research and information for Iowans. Taxpayers United followed in 1984 as a political action committee (PAC) supporting fiscally conservative candidates for public office. At the national level, Stanley helped found and lead the National Taxpayers Union.
Today, these organizations continue to work on behalf of taxpayers, with the Tax Education Foundation having become Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation and Taxpayers United now ITR PAC. Stanley did not just envision public policy organizations focused exclusively on the legislature; he believed ITR and the Tax Education Foundation had a greater purpose of educating Iowans about fiscal policy.
He applied this emphasis as a state Senator, too, insisting the most important person “in the world today is ‘you,’ a free citizen in the strongest country in the world.” He reminded taxpayers that “we’re in politics whether we want to be or not” and have a responsibility to “get involved in politics.” Whether “war or peace, good or bad schools, high or low taxes,” all outcomes depend upon politics. “The only time we get dirty politics,” he said, “is when good clean citizens sit back and ignore government.”
For Stanley, conservatism was not just philosophical; he believed citizens had a responsibility to be informed and to be involved. Stanley, himself, traveled across Iowa as numerous people hosted him for “ITR diners” in their homes or held other events at which he would speak about fiscal conservatism. He was a familiar speaker at Iowa Republican events and meetings, as well as civic clubs throughout the state. As a result, Stanley built a large grassroots and bipartisan organization of taxpayers.
In his speeches, Stanley spoke not only with authority and a thorough understanding of fiscal policy, but also with humor and flair. He referred to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as the “infernal revenue agency,” and he argued that citizens across the nation were being “taxed to death.” He told his audiences “the government is unable to control its appetite.” He had the gift of explaining complex tax and budget policies in a direct way people could understand.
From the 1960s until his passing in 2015, Stanley championed the taxpayer’s cause. Whether the income, sales, property, or any other tax, whether at the local, state, or federal level, he understood the cause of excessive taxation was government spending.
For that reason, Stanley was an ardent supporter of fiscal rules and spending limitations. In 1978, he called for an amendment to the state constitution “to stop increasing property taxes and government spending.” He also favored an amendment to the United States Constitution that would limit spending and require a balanced budget. “We must put government on a responsible reducing diet,” he said, “by amending the United States and Iowa Constitutions to limit taxes and spending. Taxing and spending are out of control.”
Stanley also supported constitutional limits to increased taxes. One amendment for which he advocated would have required a supermajority of both chambers of the legislature to increase taxes. He favored constitutional limits for income and property taxes. He argued constitutional tax and spending limits were needed because politicians would never limit spending on their own.
Marking them as “Taxpayers Rights Amendments,” Stanley believed taxpayer protections in the constitutional bedrock were essential for taxpayers. “Constitutional tax limits will cut government’s percentage slice of your income and let you keep a bigger share of what you earn and produce,” he noted.
He understood the adage that only in government is slowing the growth of spending viewed as a cut. “A cut to them doesn’t mean the same thing that it does to you. In government, it means that you ask for a large increase and you got a somewhat smaller one.”
“The American tax system,” Stanley elaborated, “rewards spending and immediate consumption and punishes the thrifty and the investor.” In this way, excessive burdens on taxpayers are a deterrent to the economy. In 1984, Iowa’s top income tax rate was 13%, which was the fifth highest rate in the nation. The property tax burden, which Stanley described as “painfully high,” was the 14th highest in the nation. Iowa, Stanley quipped, had become “a little carbon copy of the federal government where spending is concerned.”
Despite his strong beliefs, Stanley remained prudent. During the late 1970s, a national tax revolt swept through the country over high property taxes. Its highwater mark was California’s Proposition 13, which some hold up even today as a model for property tax reform. Stanley repeatedly distanced himself from Proposition 13, cautioning against drastic cuts in government spending. For a durable, conservative reform, “government’s slice of your pie must be gradually reduced.”
When the Iowa Legislature was considering property tax reform the early 1970s, Stanley argued a spending limit was the solution. As he described it, “You’d probably start with the amount that a city, town or county is spending, say this year, and provide for an annual growth factor, which would take inflation into consideration.”
Stanley held that property tax relief would only be found in addressing local government spending. He understood the game local governments play with taxpayers: “when you get a period when property valuations are going up as sharply as they are now, 15 to 20% in some counties, local governments can spend a great deal more, and they can do it without raising the mill limit.” This problem continues today. Local officials boast to taxpayers they have kept rates the same or even lowered them, even as taxpayers wonder why their property tax bills continue to increase.
While Iowa still has not adopted a Taxpayers Rights Amendment to the state constitution, the legislature has an opportunity to send additional taxpayer protections to the ballot. One proposed amendment that is under consideration would require a two-thirds majority of both chambers of the legislature to raise the income tax; another would constitutionally protect the flat tax. Both would fit nicely in Stanley’s collection of “Taxpayers’ Rights Amendments.”
It’s also worth noting that Governor Kim Reynolds and the legislature have made incredible progress on tax reform in recent years. Together, they have reduced the individual income tax rate by almost 60%, replaced the progressive multi-rate tax structure with a flat tax, and eliminated the inheritance tax, among other pro-taxpayer reforms. And Iowa’s Taxpayer Relief Fund would also be of interest to Stanley. The legislature created it for the purpose of capturing the overcollection of income and sales taxes and returning money to taxpayers in the form of income tax relief. Prudent budgeting has resulted in multiple General Fund surpluses and brought the Taxpayer Relief Fund balance to $3.6 billion.
Iowa has accomplished much since David Stanley began his work in public policy, but advancements in conservative budgeting and tax reform are still needed. A pro-taxpayer agenda in 2026 might include:
These seven policies would reinforce Stanley’s legacy for the benefit of all Iowans, not only placing the taxpayer first, but also making the state more competitive. As Stanley expressed his strong belief, “the people must protect themselves by putting some kind of restraints in the Constitution.”
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