[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 87 (Monday, July 6, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7343-S7344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MARYLAND COMPTROLLER LOUIS GOLDSTEIN

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, and to all who are with us in the 
proceedings today, I rise with melancholy to pay tribute to a great 
Marylander who passed away over this weekend, our beloved and endeared 
comptroller, Louie Goldstein. Louie, indeed, was a Maryland treasure--
and he was--to the State, and the State treasured him. Like all 
Marylanders, I will miss Louie Goldstein and mourn his passing. As 
Maryland's comptroller, he always stood steadfast sentry over the State 
purse. He helped make sure that the economy was booming, and he fought 
for the economy of our State. He fought for the State to have a triple-
A bond rating. He also was out there absolutely on the side of his 
constituents.
  It is hard to believe that the State tax collector was the most 
popular elected official in the State. This man collected the State 
taxes for 40 years. And every tax season he would say ``Don't delay. 
File today.'' He crisscrossed the State often going close to 100,000 
miles reaching out to rotaries, senior citizen clubs, and League of 
Women Voters gatherings always talking about the State's economy, what 
the tax dollars went for, and he was beloved.
  He ran a tight ship, and Maryland benefited from it for more than 39 
years. In his 10 terms as the comptroller, he always made sure that 
Maryland kept its triple-A bond rating, which was an indication of our 
fiscal soundness.
  As the State's tax collector, he prided himself on getting tax 
returns back quickly and efficiently to Marylanders. There was no IRS-
type heavy hand on Louie Goldstein's watch.
  We always knew that the tax collector's office was run efficiently, 
fairly, and a taxpayer could get a hearing and get their refund early 
and on time.
  Louie was a man of the old school. He was a gentleman. His word was 
his bond. He believed in high-tech and reach-out politics. But also he 
was a very shrewd businessman. Under his very folksy style in which he 
would reach out and always had a laugh and a word of encouragement, he 
also knew the power of high-tech. He came from an era of pen and paper. 
He would joke about himself, and was maybe even a stylist. But quickly 
he saw the power and utility of new technology and worked diligently to 
bring high-tech efficiency to the comptroller's office.
  Under his leadership, Maryland was the first State to computerize its 
tax records. At the time of his death, he was working on a system that 
would allow Marylanders to file their taxes electronically.
  He also realized the magnitude of the Year 2000 problem. He got a 
jump-start on fixing it.
  Imagine an 85-year-old comptroller who had served 10 terms doing the 
job, had more new ideas and was more farsighted than many of the young 
people who want to come into government. He was reshaping Maryland's 
computers so they would be ready by 1999.

  Now, anyone who met him knew there was much more to Louie Goldstein 
than his position as comptroller. When he came up to you, he would 
shake your hand, give you his trademark little imitation gold coin that 
said ``God bless you, real good.'' He radiated warmth that was truly 
genuine. Louie was a tremendous public speaker and, unlike most 
politicians, people looked forward to his southern Maryland accent. 
However, when other politicians found out he was scheduled to speak, 
they always got a little nervous, including yours truly.
  Louie Goldstein was a dedicated Democrat and worked tirelessly for a 
Democratic ``Team Maryland,'' but would work on a bipartisan basis for 
fiscal soundness and business attraction to the State.
  Early on, he campaigned for me. He knocked on doors, and he believed 
in me, when I was a little upstart politician before I got to be one of 
the fortunate 100. All Maryland Democrats owe Louie Goldstein a debt of 
gratitude for showing us how to stay in touch with constituents, 
whether it was at a church supper or in a business boardroom.
  Louie Goldstein was tremendously warm and kind. He loved to laugh and 
loved to be on the sunny side of life. I am proud to call him a friend, 
a colleague, and a mentor. There was and will be no one like him. We 
will find a successor, but we will never find a replacement, nor should 
we seek one. He was unique in Maryland politics, and I think he was 
unique in American history.
  On the day of his death, he was in five different parades, came home, 
read the Declaration of Independence to his gathered family, as he had 
done for so many years, took a swim, and then God called him to glory.
  We salute him. As Louie would say to one and all, I say to him, 
``Louie, God bless you, real good.''
  I ask unanimous consent that the Baltimore Sun tributes to Louie 
Goldstein be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Baltimore Sun, July 4, 1998]

                     Louis L. Goldstein, 1913-1998

       What can you write about Louis L. Goldstein that hasn't 
     been recorded numerous times during his 60-year career in 
     public service?
       He was truly a legend in his own time, the best-known and 
     best-liked Maryland politician of the last four decades.
       Call him ``Mr. Maryland.'' Or as one speaker put it at a 
     fund-raiser last year, our ``state fossil.'' Up until his 
     death last night at age 85, Mr. Goldstein could--and did--run 
     lesser-aged politicians ragged on the campaign trail and in 
     the hallways of state government.
       Voters elected Louie Goldstein state comptroller a record 
     10 times. His love of people and his perpetual optimism made 
     him one of the few tax collectors in America who drew cheers, 
     not jeers, from constituents.
       But Mr. Goldstein was far more than a popular campaigner. 
     He ran one of the best tax-collection departments in the 
     nation, receiving awards for keeping his office on the 
     cutting edge of technology. His latest success: A vast 
     increase in computerized tax filings this year.
       It was on the Board of Public Works, though, that Mr. 
     Goldstein may have performed his greatest service. This 
     largely unknown panel--the governor, the comptroller and the 
     state treasurer--holds immense power over billions of dollars 
     of state contracts.
       It was Mr. Goldstein who acted as board skeptic, grilling 
     bureaucrats mercilessly on the merits of projects. What a 
     ferocious fiscal watchdog he was! He poured over voluminous 
     reports to the point where he knew as much about them as 
     those making the presentations.
       Often, proposals were pulled even before the public 
     hearing--after Mr. Goldstein had brutally dissected the plan 
     at the panel's pre-board sessions.
  Given the immense power granted the governor in Maryland, the need 
for checks and balances is critical. Louis L. Goldstein performed that 
role brilliantly. But he did so with a smile on his face and a keen 
understanding of the benefits of government when it is made to work in 
favor of the best interests of its citizens.
       God bless Louie Goldstein, real good.
                                  ____


                 [From the Baltimore Sun, July 5, 1998]

                   ``There Will Be No One Like Him''

                       (By William F. Zorzi Jr.)

       Louis Lazarus Goldstein was the total package: 
     indefatigable campaigner, skilled financial watchdog and 
     accessible public servant, a 40-year incumbent who was 
     unbeatable by challengers of either party.
       It seemed as if he had been comptroller of Maryland's 
     treasury forever. When Goldstein was first elected in 1958, 
     Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, J. Millard Tawes was 
     stepping up to be governor and the Baltimore Colts were still 
     a month away from winning their first national championship.
       When he died Friday night after a heart attack at his 
     Calvert County home, a chapter of Maryland's history was 
     closed. A career ended that stretched back 60 years, to when 
     he was first elected to the House of Delegates.
       Goldstein, a Democrat who was 85, helped usher Maryland 
     government into the modern era, overseeing the 
     computerization of the state's tax and payroll systems. He 
     fought

[[Page S7344]]

     fiercely to protect the state's AAA bond rating, calming 
     jittery New York bond houses during the state's various 
     financial crises. And he earned the trust of a public that he 
     never lost touch with, consistently winning high marks among 
     Marylanders for a job well done.
       ``He truly represented the state of Maryland,'' said Robert 
     A. Marano, a tractor dealer who was watching Towson's Fourth 
     of July parade yesterday. ``He loved what he was doing and it 
     showed.''
       Said U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski: ``There was and will be 
     no one like him.''
       In a singular honor, Goldstein's body will lie in state for 
     public viewing tomorrow in the Rotunda of the Maryland State 
     House. A funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at 
     Trinity United Methodist Church in Prince Frederick.
       Gov. Parris N. Glendening, who ordered state flags to half 
     staff to mark Goldstein's passing, said the comptroller's 
     ``personal touch would be missed very, very much.''
       Glendening, who was to appear with Goldstein in three 
     parades yesterday, said he found it ``really weird'' not to 
     see the comptroller in the car behind him.
       Goldstein was one of three members--Glendening and Maryland 
     Treasurer Richard N. Dixon being the other two--of the Board 
     of Public Works, the powerful panel that oversees billions of 
     dollars in expenditures each year.


                            fiscal watchdog

       It was as a member of that board that he earned his 
     reputation as the state's watchdog, a stickler for detail who 
     often would grill bureaucrats--at times mercilessly--over 
     even the smallest of contract awards. It was not unusual for 
     him to impatiently scold them at the crowded meetings, as he 
     looked up over half-lens glasses balanced on the end of his 
     nose.
       Of particular interest to him were school roofs--a subject 
     on which he became an expert because the state replaced so 
     many of them.
       ``Governors and treasurers have come and gone . . . but 
     he's been the constant,'' said Dixon, who thought of 
     Goldstein as the board's ``General Overseer.''
       ``He ran the show,'' Dixon said. ``He read every page of 
     those big agenda books before the meetings. He must have 
     spent the weekend going through the items.''
       In fact, before his heart attack Friday evening, Goldstein 
     spent a portion of the day reviewing the agenda for this 
     week's board meeting.
       State Sen. Robert R. Neall, an Anne Arundel Republican who 
     as a county executive and legislator has put in time before 
     the Board of Public Works, praised Goldstein for his work 
     there.
       ``You had someone who was very competent at his job, 
     someone who was very sharp fiscally,'' Neall said. ``He would 
     be cautioning a governor not to make a mistake that some 
     governor, like Governor O'Connor, made 50 years ago,'' he 
     said. ``He just understood state government like no one 
     else.''
       His knowledge of matters financial was such that six weeks 
     prior to the stock market crash in October 1987, he advised 
     the Maryland Retirement and Pension Board, which he chaired, 
     to moved $2 billion in investments out of stocks and into 
     bonds. The board followed his advice, saving the pension 
     system from huge losses and bolstering further his national 
     reputation.


                              born in 1913

       Goldstein was born March 14, 1913, in Prince Frederick to 
     immigrant merchant Goodman Goldstein and his wife, Belle.
       He was first elected to public office in 1938, the year 
     Herbert R. O'Conor became Maryland's governor and Franklin 
     Delano Roosevelt was president.
       He served one four-year term in the House of Delegates 
     before entering the Marine Corps during World War II. In 
     1946, a month after returning stateside, he was elected to 
     the Maryland Senate, where he spent 12 years, including four 
     years as president.
       In 1958, he ran for comptroller in what would be the first 
     of 10 terms. Though his state service was uninterrupted, he 
     did lose one election--to Joseph D. Tydings in the 1964 
     Democratic primary for U.S. Senate.


                         successful in business

       His distinctive Southern drawl and country-boy manner 
     belied just how shrewd he was. He was a successful 
     businessman as a real estate investor, tree farmer and former 
     Calvert County newspaper publisher.
       Over his career, primarily in the 1950s and early 1960s, 
     Goldstein bought thousands of acres of land in Southern 
     Maryland and on the Eastern Shore. He advised friends and 
     acquaintances to do the same, ``because the Good Lord isn't 
     making any more of it.''
       Some of those deals were questioned, particularly when he 
     sold some of the land at a high profit, but he protested that 
     he had done nothing wrong.
       Goldstein traded on his charm and affable ways, 
     crisscrossing the state and seeming to turn up at every 
     rally, fund-raiser or Rotary meeting to which he was invited.
       He put as many as 100,000 miles a year on his state car, 
     which was driven by Maryland State Police bodyguards.
       ``He was very much a retail, press-the-flesh politician,'' 
     said Marvin A. Bond, Goldstein's long-time assistant and 
     friend. ``He never had the benefit of a machine or vast 
     organization, and he believed that Maryland was a small 
     enough state that people still expected to see you.''
       Some of Goldstein's detractors complained privately that he 
     was an unabashed publicity seeker with a penchant for taking 
     the politically easy vote.
       If true, voters across the state never seemed to notice; 
     they returned him to office time and again by impressive 
     margins. He consistently outscored other politicians in polls 
     that measured name recognition and voter satisfaction--an 
     unusual occurrence for a state's tax collector.
       Goldstein had a remarkable memory, for figures as well as 
     faces.
       Glendening recalled the first time he met Goldstein--at a 
     Prince George's County crab feast -- just after coming to 
     Maryland from Florida in 1967. There ``must have been 600 or 
     700 people there,'' the governor said, and at the time, 
     Glendening was a mere political science professor at the 
     University of Maryland, College Park.
       ``I saw him about a year later, and he said to me, `Hi 
     professor, how are you?'''
       Shocked, Glendening asked Goldstein if he remembered him, 
     to which the comptroller responded, ``Sure I do, Parris.''


                          ``The state fossil''

       Goldstein had been around for so long that in introducing 
     him, other politicians could not resist making some crack 
     about his being in Maryland when the colony was founded. 
     Recently, he was referred to affectionately in an 
     introduction as ``the state fossil.''
       ``Louis had become an institution . . . a sort of goodwill 
     ambassador,'' Neall said. ``He had gone beyond the sort of 
     typical pol looking to renew his lease.''
       At the Towson parade yesterday, J. Kevin Wight, 38, said he 
     did not remember much about Goldstein's politics, but he did 
     remember his personality.
       ``He was always going up to people, waving,' Wight said. 
     ``He always had a smile on his face.''


                         ``God bless you all''

       Goldstein's name became synonymous with his trademark 
     phrase, ``God bless you all real good.'' The expression was 
     emblazoned on one side of gold-painted coins he handed out 
     everywhere he went. The other side read simply ``Louis L. 
     Goldstein, State Comptroller, Maryland.''
       After an event, he followed up quickly with thank-you 
     notes, often dictating them to his secretary over the car 
     phone as he left.
       Goldstein was so popular that Democratic candidates had all 
     but stopped running against him, and state Republicans put up 
     only token opposition.
       The GOP future brightened for a short time after the 1994 
     election, when Goldstein announced that he would not seek an 
     11th term. But that changed after Goldstein's wife of 48 
     years, Hazel, died in April 1996. With only state business to 
     turn to, he announced in June of that year that he would run 
     again. His decision sent virtually everyone who had 
     considered a bid out of the race.
       On Tuesday, Goldstein will be buried next to his wife at 
     the Trinity churchyard cemetery.

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I yield the floor and note the absence 
of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, what is the pending business?

                          ____________________