TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – The estranged wife of New Jersey’s gay former governor wants a judge to increase her monthly support to $4,000 – nearly four times what she now gets – so she can live a lifestyle closer to that of New Jersey’s first lady.

Dina Matos McGreevey says she and the couple’s 5-year-old daughter live in a modest three-bedroom house while her husband, Jim McGreevey, and his male partner live in a lavish 17-room mansion with gardens designed by the architect who designed Central Park, according to papers filed in Union County Superior Court.

“In total, I need $11,162 per month to meet my expenses,” Matos McGreevey told the judge.

“For plaintiff to assert that he is only obligated to pay $1,129 per month in support for Jacqueline given his income and lifestyle is outrageous,” she says in court papers.

The papers, filed Monday, were made available Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Karen M. Cassidy, who is presiding over the couple’s contentious divorce.

Matos McGreevey asserts in the filing that the former governor intentionally kept his 2005 earnings to $165,000 “to limit his support obligations.”

“He expected that by the time he had to reveal his 2006 income, our case would have been settled, and so in one year he more than doubled his income,” she says.

Citing 2006 federal income tax returns, Matos McGreevey says McGreevey’s adjusted gross income was $428,833, including $17,400 from Kean University for adjunct teaching and $60,000 in consulting fees from Weiner Lesniak, the law firm of his friend, Sen. Ray Lesniak.

Matos McGreevey, meanwhile, said she grossed $82,000 in 2006 from her position with Columbus Hospital in Newark. She also got a $275,000 book advance, of which she netted $195,000 after expenses. But, unless the book sells better, she won’t receive any royalty payments.

McGreevey’s lawyer, Matthew Piermatti II, said Matos McGreevey “seems to be looking for the perks and benefits that even an ex-governor would not enjoy.”

James McGreevey, former New Jersey governor, filed a response to his estranged wife on Sept. 14.

McGreevey, who disclosed he was gay while in office, said he cannot afford a bigger monthly support check and that Dina Matos McGreevey is not entitled to continue to live the lifestyle of a first lady at his expense.

McGreevey’s income has averaged about $155,000 a year for the past five years.

The judge will hear arguments on support and other issues contained in the paperwork on Sept. 21.

John Post, who filed the papers on Matos McGreevey’s behalf, did not return a message for comment.

When the McGreeveys last appeared in court together in July, Cassidy urged them to settle their case rather than bring it to trial.

“You folks do not have the money it’s going to take to try this case,” Cassidy said.

In addition to the financial strain, Cassidy noted the emotional toll a months-long divorce trial would impose.

Other unsettled issues in McGreevey vs. McGreevey include alimony, how the couple should split payments to their daughter’s parenting coordinator, and claims that McGreevey is underemployed. The former governor, who has a law degree, has enrolled in an Episcopal seminary.

The McGreeveys also squared off in court in April, when the judge urged the pair to use “common sense” in raising their daughter and cautioned against turning the case into a further public spectacle.

Jim McGreevey stunned the nation when he announced in August 2004 that he was “a gay American.” He said then that he was resigning as governor because of a blackmail threat by a former lover, an aide whom McGreevey had put on the state payroll.

The McGreeveys officially split up when they moved out of the governor’s mansion in November 2004.