KEAN'S FRESHMAN YEAR AS GOVERNOR: BUDGETS, TAXES AND A TON OF MAIL

For a year now, Thomas H. Kean has been Governor of New Jersey. In an interview with Joseph F. Sullivan of The New York Times, Mr. Kean discussed his governorship - from aspects of the job that surprised him to his relations with the Legislature. Here are some of the things he had to say: Special to the New York Times

TRENTON, Jan. 28 - For a year now, Thomas H. Kean has been Governor of New Jersey. In an interview with Joseph F. Sullivan of The New York Times, Mr. Kean discussed his governorship - from aspects of the job that surprised him to his relations with the Legislature. Here are some of the things he had to say:

Surprises

I never realized the amount of paper work that a Governor has to deal with. You don't think of things like commutations - that so many people in the prisons make personal appeals to the Governor for commutations or pardons.

I look at those things as coming from human beings directly to the Governor, and therefore I think I ought to read them personally. It can be as long as a legal brief - sometimes they've been to the law library - or a short handwritten note. I get three a week. Then there are extraditions; I get 30 to 40 of those a week.

Then there is the paper work from counsel's office, from the various authority minutes and the 2,000 or so bills passed in a legislative session. I also have to decide whether this department or that department should make a proposal in a particular area, or whether we as an administration should do something.

For some reason, I get a lot more mail than Brendan did. I don't know why. I was told he would get 150 to 200 letters a day. We get 400 to 600, and sometimes it will average 1,000 letters a day over a period. No big issue, usually. People recommend spending cuts, but there's a tremendous misunderstanding of state revenues. They say you've got to use gambling revenues to balance the budget, not knowing it's dedicated to programs for senior citizens and the handicapped. PEOPLE WITH PROBLEMS

Most of the mail is just from people with problems. I believe if someone writes the Governor they should get an answer, and I'm always disturbed when I go someplace and a person tells me, ''Hey, I wrote you and you never answered me.''