When we read about the history of the U.S. tax revolt, most of us will recognize the name of Howard Jarvis of California Proposition-13 fame. Some may also remember names such as Richard Headlee (Michigan), Barbara Anderson (Massachusetts), Mel Hancock (Missouri), Jim Gibbons (Nevada), Sydney Hay (Arizona), and Douglas Bruce (Colorado) for their contributions to limiting the financial reach of government in their respective states.
One towering individual, however, does not receive enough credit for building a fiscally conservative movement in his state, as well as across the nation and abroad: the late David M. Stanley of Iowa. Ten years have elapsed since Stanley’s passing in 2015 at age 87, and he rightfully deserves a place of honor among those who fought—and won—on behalf of taxpayers.
Entering the political arena in 1959, Stanley served in both the House and Senate of the Iowa Legislature, including leadership positions, when Iowa had among the highest personal income tax rates in the United States. But Stanley realized before many others the obvious but often overlooked connection between both sides of the government ledger.
Throughout his public life, he argued that government spending was the factor behind higher taxes. “It is easier for politicians to yield to the noisy special interest groups when the taxpayer keeps quietly paying the bills,” he stated.
He applied this emphasis as a state senator, 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.
To ensure taxpayers would have a voice in Des Moines, he formed Iowans for Tax Relief (ITR) in 1978. ITR would later reach the point of having more than 50,000 supporters, the largest membership of any taxpayer group in the nation proportionate to a state’s population. 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.
But Stanley served taxpayers far outside of Iowa. In 1997, he was named Chairman of National Taxpayers Union (NTU), which at that time was already nearing its 30-year anniversary. Having come razor-close to securing a balanced budget/tax limitation amendment to the U.S. Constitution (when the national debt was about 1/7 the size it is now), NTU’s future in the limited government benefitted from Stanley’s vision and energetic leadership to become a pragmatic voice for lower taxes and government spending.
Pete Sepp recalls his first encounter with Stanley when Sepp began his service to NTU as a receptionist in 1988. “When I answered the phone a few days into my job, an authoritative voice on the other end of the receiver spent 15 minutes of his very valuable time getting to know me and assuring me that I was a part of something that would change the lives of the people who paid government’s bills. Time after time afterward, in front of congressional hearings, press conferences, and gatherings of other activists, I saw how Dave would flawlessly articulate the cause of taxpayers in every part of society and politics. His wisdom informs everything I do today.”
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. NTU remains a key participant in every major fiscal policy campaign in America, including the recently-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the effort to bring federal spending back under control.
In his final years, David Stanley became an ambassador of limited government to the planet as Chairman of World Taxpayers Associations (WTA), a consortium of more than 60 tax groups across five continents. Founded in 1988, WTA quickly made its mark in a changing geopolitical environment. During his work both before and after becoming WTA’s leader, Stanley saw the emergence of limited flat-rate tax structures take hold in former Soviet republics as well as pro-growth reforms in Ireland, New Zealand, and other nations. At a 2012 WTA meeting in Ukraine, he gave a powerful voice to the hopes of many citizen-activists when he said: “You are engaged in the greatest human rights struggle of our time: the rights to lower taxes, less wasteful budgets, and limited government that everyone deserves.”
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.”
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.
He knew constitutional tax and spending limits were needed because politicians would never restrain government growth on their own.
Marking them as “Taxpayers Rights Amendments,” Stanley believed that “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 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.”
Iowa has yet to adopt a Taxpayers Rights Amendment to the state constitution, but Stanley would be elated by recent tax reforms. Governor Kim Reynolds and the legislature have reduced the individual income tax by almost 60% and replaced the progressive multi-rate tax structure with a flat tax. When Stanley died, Iowa’s top income tax rate was 8.98%. Although that was down from 13%, Iowa now has a flat 3.8% tax and no inheritance tax.
Through his life’s work, Stanley set the stage for Governor Reynolds and the legislature to enact historic tax reforms, and so much more beyond Iowa.
“I have fond memories of David Stanley and all his help in getting me elected and guiding me through various tax issues. He and his wife were amazing people who love[d] our Constitutional liberties and stood on the front lines defending them. We are thankful that he ‘schooled’ others who followed to take up the baton of boldness, truth, and courage to hold government intact and to act when government becomes oppressive,” stated former Iowa state Senator Kitty Rehberg in reflecting upon the memory of David Stanley.
His impact on so many lives, especially taxpayers’ lives, will never be forgotten.