Fred E. Stewart

Who was Fred E. Stewart?

Fred E. Stewart was a member of the California State Board of Equalization from 1926 to 1942, representing 18 northern counties from Sacramento to Bakersfield. He was a co-author of the California retail sales tax and was twice president of the National Association of Tax Administrators.

Stewart was appoointed in 1917 as superintendent of the California State Belt Railroad, which operated on the San Francisco waterfront. He was elected four times as a Republican to the Board of Equalization — in 1926, 1930, 1934, and 1938. In 1933 he was director of the State Tax Research Bureau.

In 1936, law-enforcement agencies began to investigate reported corruption in the Board of Equalization. The Los Angeles Times reported:

Startling charges of graft and corruption in the investigation of California's liquor control administration, which involved prominent political figures of the north and south, held the attention of the state last week. Starting from a single complaint of a $500 pay-off to settle a law violation, the scandale became a snowball rolling downhill with charges of "shakedowns" and "favoritism" being hurled on all sides. . . .