Neighbor News
Opinion: When Will Sean Kean Stop Lining His Pockets?
Assemblyman Sean T. Kean, Esq. continues to be awarded work by the same municipal governments that elected him to represent them in Trenton.
One thing everyone can agree on is that New Jersey’s property taxes are too high. Every two years we elect men and women to the New Jersey State Assembly and everyone of them have promised to lower property taxes. Every resident in the State knows how that has turned out.
In New Jersey’s 30th Legislative District, Sean T Kean, Esq. has been in the Legislature for twenty years. During that time the property taxes have continued to climb with no real signs of significant relief. High property taxes have many different causes and it would be hard to blame anyone individual, but Assemblyman Kean is different.
An OPRA request to several municipalities in LD30 revealed just how much Sean Kean personally is paid by voters. In 2020, while the economy and businesses throughout LD30 came to a crash, Kean was personally paid $134,000.03 in salary from 3 sources: Assembly salary of $49,000, Howell salary of $50,000, and Belmar salary of $34,999.95. While the pandemic was crushing our small businesses Kean was still being paid with our tax dollars.
If that were the full amount taxpayers were paying Kean, maybe it could be overlooked, but Kean is a partner at his firm Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, LLC. Kean’s firm received $48,966.80 from Howell and $107,678.51 from Wall and most of the billed work was performed by Kean. During 2020 Howell residents paid out $98,966.80 in tax money to Kean and his firm on top of the $49,000 in tax money we pay for him to serve in the Assembly. According to the Census website there are 17,910 households in Howell. Each household in Howell is paying over $8 in property taxes to Kean.
Our municipal officials rely upon Assemblyman Kean to advocate on behalf of the municipality in Trenton. Awarding Kean or his firm a municipal contract creates at the least an inference that it is offered to influence his public duties which is a conflict of interest under NJSA 52:13D-14. In addition, Kean runs the risk of running afoul of NJSA 52:13D-18 anytime he votes on a matter which may lead to additional billable hours for his firm in a municipality. There are many qualified attorneys available that do not have the same political conflicts.
It is time for the voters in Belmar, Howell, and Wall to send a clear message back to Sean Kean: Stop Lining Your Pockets! On Election Day vote Kean out of the Assembly.
