Edward J. Steimel, American lobbyist and fundraiser, Died at 94

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Edward Joseph Steimel, Sr., known as Ed Steimel was born on January 20, 1922, and died on April 8, 2016.

He was the founding executive director of the interest group, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, based in the capital city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

During 1970, the PAR director Steimel questioned why Louisiana voters “seem to have an unusually high tolerance for abuse of public office” as well as a proclivity toward gambling.

Edward was especially criticized for the existence of pinball machines, which he claimed attract primarily the young and the poor: “Very few rich people ever play the pinball machine.”

In the same time, Edward had found that Louisiana had an “inadequate supply of highly skilled labor.”

Edward had questioned economic policies of the Louisiana legislature, after the raised sales taxes from 2 to 3 cents per dollar to fund increases in teacher pay, in 1970.

He declared then Governor Edwin Edwards’ proposal to legalize casino gambling, in 1986, which was eventually enacted, “crazy” and likened the issue to a tax plan advanced in 1959 by then Governor Earl Kemp Long, who was for a time confined to a mental institution when questions arose about his fitness to serve in office.

Edward Steimel said that gambling would never produce the 100,000 jobs and $250 million in state revenues that Edwards had forecast.

During 1972, Edward challenged the large fees received by inheritance tax attorneys in Louisiana and instead proposed that the office of the state revenue collector handle such matters.

He proposed that the state founded a combination of sales, income, and property taxes to replace its past reliance on petroleum and natural gas levies, which began to decline as a share of state revenues in the early 1970s.

However, it was reported that Jim Brandt, a former PAR executive director, said that Steimel took the formerly small organization and “built it into a statewide powerhouse.

Edward went on to the LABI and did the same there.

He was formerly a Democrat, Edward Steimel over the years moved steadily toward support of the more conservative candidates, often within the Republican Party.

Edward J. Steimel passed away at 94 yrs old.