Edward J. Steimel

Edward Joseph Steimel, Sr. (born January 20, 1922),^[2][3] is the retired founding executive director of the interest group, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Political power usually gravitates to where public money is most available. -- Edward J. Steimel

Background

One of six children, Steimel was born to George Hubert Steimel (1893-1980) and the former Josephine Zosso (1898-1986)^[4] in Pocahontas in Randolph County in northeastern Arkansas. He was educated as a journalist at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. In 1951, he joined the staff in Baton Rouge of the nonpartisan think-tank, the Public Affairs Research Council, which has proposed various "good government" reforms over many decades within Louisiana. He was the PAR executive director from 1954 to 1975.^[5]

Public Affairs Research Council

In 1970, 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. He specifically criticized the existence of pinball machines, which he claimed attract primarily the young and the poor: "Very few rich people ever play the pinball machine."^[6] At the time, Steimel found that Louisiana had an "inadequate supply of highly skilled labor." He questioned economic policies of the Louisiana legislature, which in 1970 raised sales taxes from 2 to 3 cents per dollar to fund increases in teacher pay.^[6]

In 1986, Steimel declared Governor Edwin Edwards' proposal to legalize casino gambling, which was evenutally 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. Steimel said that gambling would never produce the 100,000 jobs and $250 million in state revenues that Edwards had forecast.^[7]

In 1972, Steimel 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. Steimel proposed that the state establish 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.^[8]

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

LABI director

As the director of LABI, Steimel often sparred with the Democrat Victor Bussie, long-term president of the Louisiana AFL-CIO, who fought right-to-work legislation which Steimel had championed in 1976. That year Steimel supported U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., in the campaign against the Democrat Jimmy Carter, whom Steimel claimed favored the repeal of Section 14B of the Taft Hartley Act, which permits states to adopt right-to-work laws. More than twenty states have adopted such legislation.^[9]

In 1989, however, Steimel and Bussie united to support Republican John S. Treen, older brother of former Governor David C. Treen, in a special election for the District 81 seat in the Louisiana House of Representatives, vacated by Charles Cusimano, who became a state district judge. Treen narrowly lost the race to David Duke, then of Jefferson Parish, a former figure in the Ku Klux Klan. Duke later ran for the U.S. Senate and for governor in consecutive years in races which seemed to hamper the growth of the state GOP.

In 1982, Steimel voiced immediate opposition to Governor Treen's proposed $450 million Coastal Wetlands Environmental Levy tax on petroleum and natural gas and did so without even consulting his own board.^[10] Opposed by LABI and many conservative lawmakers, such as B.F. O'Neal, Jr., of Shreveport and Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, CWEL was defeated in the Louisiana House, where it failed to obtain the two-thirds majority required for taxes.^[11]

Steimel has long been critical of excessive tax burdens on Louisiana businesses. When the state lost 139,000 jobs in mining, construction, and manufacturing between 1981 and 1986, Steimel noted:

Louisiana possesses such a richness in natural resources that it should clearly be one of the most attractive, competitive states in the nation for economic growth. But the state's overdependence upon these natural resources to underpin its economy is seen today as its most serious mistake [but] can be turned around in just one good session of the legislature, for it is clear what the problems are.^[12]

Late in 1986, in his syndicated newspaper column, Steimel declared the Louisiana tax burden as the principal reason that the state has not sufficiently expanded its employment base.^[13]

In 1987, Steimel announced opposition to mandatory collective bargaining for Louisiana teachers, a process which he maintained would remove the role of the public from the negotiation of educational labor contracts. Collective bargaining is voluntary on the part of each school district within Louisiana. Steimel voiced support for teacher salary increases^[14] but opposed other demands from the teacher associations.^[15]

In the summer of 1987, Steimel endorsed a $30 million reduction in unemployment compensation payments. At the time Louisiana employers owed $1 billion to the unemployment fund, a situation Steimel termed another major deterrent to economic growth and a contributing factor to the high rate of unemployment in the state, which was 12.5 percent in 1986.^[16] According to Steimel, Louisiana employers were then paying $234 more per year per employee into the unemployment fund than were employers in competing southern states. The reduction approved by the legislature brought Louisiana in line with unemployment payments made by employers in neighboring states.^[17]

Steimel blamed environmental problems not on business but poor public policies regarding solid waste disposal and sewage treatment. He cited pesticide runoff from the American Midwest as a major pollutant of streams in Louisiana. Steimel once cited the cartoon character Pogo by Walt Kelly that, in reference to the environment, "the enemy is us."^[18]

Steimel encouraged the Democrat-turned-Republican Jock Scott of Alexandria, an outgoing member of the state House, to run in 1987 for the Louisiana State Senate, a position which Scott subsequently lost to the Democrat businessman Joe McPherson of Rapides Parish, who held the Senate seat until 2012. One of the lawmakers generally supportive of LABI, Ron Gomez, a Democrat from Lafayette, in 1986 secured the "Most Valuable Player to Business" designation. Despite his pro-business voting record, Gomez had criticized Steimel for unproductive negativity toward the state's educational structure.^[19]

Everett Doerge, than an assistant superintendent of schools in Webster Parish in north Louisiana and later a Democratic member of the Louisiana House, accused Steimel and LABI of seeking to "destroy" public education. In a 1987 reply letter to Doerge published by the Minden Press-Herald, Steimel described the veteran educator as "a perfect example of why we can never change our present [educational] system. ...[His] reaction and behavior we have come to expect from many in the educational establishment who are more interested in protecting the status quo and jobs, rather than educating children. ...^[20]

In one of his 1988 columns, Steimel aimed his pen at the United States Congress and the liberal majority elected in 1986 in the last two years of the administration of U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan. Steimel objected to an increase in the minimum wage, a measure which he said would "wreak havoc with the very individuals it is designed to help most -- new entrants into the work force and new minority workers in particular." He called the 1988 legislative session the "John Galt Congress", borrowing from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, in which uninformed people merely shrug their shoulders and ask "Who is John Galt"?" whenever they are questioned about the grip of expanded government on their lives and liberty.^[21] A few days later, Steimel wrote that in the United States "political power usually gravitates to where public money is most available. ... We need our own money spent in our own community for things we need or want to improve our quality of life."^[22]

The LABI address is 3113 Valley Creek Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70898-0258. The association was headed from 1989 to 2013 by the executive director, Daniel Leo "Dan" Juneau (born June 1946), a Libertarian. Succeeding Juneau as executive director is Stephen Michael Waguespack (born February 1974) of Baton Rouge, a Republican and a former chief of staff to Governor Bobby Jindal.^[23]

Later years

From 1989 to 2006, Steimel was the director of development of the Louisiana State University College of Engineering. During his tenure in that position, Steimel worked to obtain more than $58 million in private funds from industry and alumni. Through his efforts, LSU gained more than 50 scholarships, 106 professorships, and 15 special chairs.^[5] The Edward J. Steimel Staff Excellence Award is presented annually to employees of the LSU Engineering Department.^[24]

For three decades Steimel was the principal spokesperson and first fundraiser for the Baton Rouge Cerebral Palsy Center, since known as the McMains Children's Developmental Center.^[5]

In 1996, no longer the LABI executive director, Steimel supported the conservative Democrat-turned-Republican Woody Jenkins for the U.S. Senate in a race narrowly lost in a disputed vote to the Democrat Mary Landrieu, who still holds the position. He also contributed to the reelection of then U.S. Representative Richard H. Baker of Baton Rouge.^[25]

In 2007, Steimel worked for the election of Republican Bobby Jindal as governor. Thereafter like the statewide radio commentator, Moon Griffon of Monroe, Steimel withdrew his support for Jindal, saying that the governor was insufficiently conservative on fiscal matters, having vacillated over a large legislative pay hike, which Jindal subsequently withdrew.^[26]

Steimel holds an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Centenary College in Shreveport.

Steimel and his wife, the former Mary Welch, reside in Baton Rouge and also have a domicile in the resort community of Gulf Shores, Alabama.

References