Iowa Taxpayer,

As we gather with family and friends during this week of Thanksgiving, it’s a perfect time to reflect on where we’ve come from and where we are headed. With the long weekend offering a break from the usual routine, and maybe even a few spare minutes if you handled your Black Friday shopping online, we wanted to share some timely Thanksgiving-themed content from ITR Foundation.

We’re featuring a trio of articles that blend history, humor, and policy. In our annual tongue-in-cheek tradition, we revisit the Iowa–Nebraska rivalry.  It’s not just who wins on the football field, but who’s winning in the competition for better tax climates.

We’re also taking a step much further back, looking to the Pilgrims, early colonists, and the founding principles that shaped Americans’ understanding of government.

Even before the United States of America existed as a country, there was a commitment to ordered liberty and self-governance that laid the foundation for our national, state, and local institutions. At a time when government often drifts from those original principles, these Thanksgiving reflections help us connect our current challenges with the enduring wisdom that guided America from its earliest days.

Iowa Still Winning the Tax Rivalry with Nebraska

30-Second Summary:

• Iowa outperforms Nebraska on tax policy, climbing rapidly in national competitiveness rankings thanks to major tax reforms, while Nebraska continues to lag behind in several key categories.

• Iowa’s pro-growth tax “playbook”—including a flat 3.8% income tax, elimination of retirement income and inheritance taxes—has strengthened its economic position and attracted migration from neighboring states like Nebraska.

• Despite Iowa’s strong lead, vulnerabilities such as high property taxes remain, underscoring the need for continued reform to maintain Iowa’s competitive edge.

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From Pilgrims to Property Taxes

30-Second Summary:

• America’s earliest settlers believed government existed only to protect natural rights—especially property—not to manage society. Families, churches, and communities handled most social needs through voluntary cooperation, cultivating a citizenry capable of self-rule.

• This founding worldview clashes with today’s rising property-tax burdens. Drawing on John Locke’s social-contract theory, the article argues that when government taxes away the fruits of a family’s labor or threatens their ability to stay in their home, it violates the very purpose for which government was created.

• Modern Iowa should reclaim these principles. As lawmakers confront high property taxes, they should remember that early American governments were intentionally small and limited, focused on protecting life, liberty, and property—leaving free people and local communities to flourish on their own.

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Gratitude for the Forgotten Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact reads in part:

Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith… we do solemnly and mutually… covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick… and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws… as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

30-Second Summary:

• The Pilgrims and Puritans laid important foundations for American liberty, self-government, and constitutional principles long before 1776.

• Their Reformed theological heritage, commitment to consent-based governance, and the Mayflower Compact shaped later colonial constitutions and influenced the U.S. Constitution.

• This Thanksgiving, remembering the Mayflower Compact highlights the deep historical roots of American freedom and why these early commitments to self-rule remain a blessing worth celebrating.

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