KEAN: ETHICS CHAIRMAN SHOULD KNOW STEERING FUNDS FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES IS NOT HARMLESS

Assemblyman Sean Kean today said he was stunned that without fully investigating the matter, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Ethical Standards has already determined that politically steered pork projects – some with potential conflicts of interest – pose no ethical concerns.

“To say publicly that steering taxpayer dollars to projects in which a legislator may have a personal interest is just part of the job, shows an amazing lack of sensitivity toward this issue,” said Kean, R-Monmouth. “As an advocate of a merit-based system for the distribution of state grant funds I was shocked to hear these comments.”

In an interview with Millennium Radio News, Ray Bramucci, the chairman of the ethics committee said that the 34 ethics complaints are “all politically inspired,” and that the legislators really just stand accused of “mostly doing their job.”

Last year Kean helped lead the campaign to put a stop to the improper manipulation of state grant programs for political purposes, and launched an effort to raise private financing for a legal action to stop the abuse. Kean’s campaign against the steering of taxpayer dollars to politically connected districts came after it was reported that homeland security dollars had become part of the political maneuvering.

Of the $8.3 million in local domestic preparedness grants awarded in 2004, $7.8 million went to Democrat-controlled legislative districts while only $523,454 went to Republican districts. Between 2002 and 2004, $21.3 million of the $22.9 million in grants (93 percent) went to towns in Democrat-controlled legislative districts.

“It is unacceptable for the chairman to dismiss these complaints as just dealing with routine political pork. In this case the complaints focus on the steering of that pork to programs from which the legislators personally benefit,” Kean said. “Political pork drives up the cost of state government, which drives up taxes, which in turn hurts the taxpayers. If any legislators are steering these funds for personal gain, that would be a serious ethical violation.”

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