Kean: time for answers in slush fund case

State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union): Politicker photoSUMMIT - As far back as 2004, Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Union) recalls himself and others - state Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon), then Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole (R-Cedar Grove), among them - complaining about the lack of transparency in the way legislators obtained money for projects in their respective districts.

Now on the heels of George LeBlanc’s testimony in the corruption trial of former Sen. Wayne Bryant (D-Camden) in which the Senate budget officer highlighted how legislators in 2004 and 2005 siphoned money from a dedicated $40 million property tax relief fund, Kean wants answers.

"The next step is to get our hands around what occurred," the senator told PolitickerNJ.com. "Who was spending and what was being spent? The most important thing now is to expose to the light of day what was happening - expose the process.

"We're talking about a system in which information was being held not just from the public but from other members of the Legislature, a system that resulted in massive overspending with no oversight, which made New Jersey more unaffordable, in which members of the (Codey) administration were complicit."

Kean said prior to the administration of Gov. Jim McGreevey, leadership listed legislative projects within the budget and questioned them on the floor. Elected officials, the press and the public understood - item by item - exactly what legislators voted for in June.

"Members of the Legislature had to defend these items in a very public and very transparent way," Kean recalled.

Now that LeBlanc’s testimony has again put focus on this issue, Kean stopped short of pointing a finger at anyone.

"Gov. Corzine said he would be looking into this," Kean said. "My hope is that he would engage this and that we would get the facts out before any outright presumption of malfeasance."