James McGreevey
says that he cannot afford the perks he and his estranged
wife enjoyed while he was governor of New Jersey and that
she is not entitled to continue to live the lifestyle
of a first lady at his expense.
McGreevey, who
disclosed he was gay while in office, filed court papers
Friday responding to Dina Matos McGreevey's demand this week
for a bigger monthly support check--$4,000 a
month, nearly four times what she now receives.
In her filing in
Union County superior court in New Jersey, Matos
McGreevey says she is entitled to live a lifestyle closer to
that of first lady than she is now able to afford. She
and the couple's 5-year-old daughter live in a modest
three-bedroom house, while her husband and his partner
live in a mansion with gardens, she says.
McGreevey does
not deny living in a nice house but says he does not own
it and stays there with his partner, Australian money
manager Mark O'Donnell.
In his filing the
former governor says he and Dina mostly lived in
apartments while they were married. Even while in the
governor's mansion they used only a small area as
their private quarters, he says.
''The title does
not obligate the first lady to be chauffeured or have
bodyguards or any of the security attendant to the title,''
says McGreevey, noting that his wife chose to receive
those perks, paid for by taxpayers.
Matos McGreevey,
who earns $82,000 at Columbus Hospital in Newark, says
she needs $11,162 per month to meet her expenses. She calls
McGreevey's current monthly support payment of $1,129
per month inadequate, ''given his income and
lifestyle.''
In the papers
released Friday, McGreevey's lawyer offers to increase the
support payments to $1,691 a month.
McGreevey's
income has fluctuated since he left office but has averaged
about $155,000 a year for the past five years. He says he
has not been able to pull in the kind of money
ex-governors can usually expect because of the
circumstances under which he left office.
He announced in
August 2004 that he was ''a gay American'' and would
resign. He said he had been the target of a blackmail threat
from a former lover.
Superior court
judge Karen M. Cassidy, who is presiding over the couple's
contentious divorce, will hear arguments on support and
other matters September 21.
When the
McGreeveys last appeared in court together in July, Cassidy
urged them to settle their case rather than bring it to
trial, telling the pair they had neither the financial
means or emotional fortitude to endure a long divorce
trial.
The McGreeveys
officially split up when they moved out of the governor's
mansion in November 2004. (Angela Delli Santi, AP)
Charlie Kirk DID say stoning gay people was the 'perfect law' — and these other heinous quotes