Report: N.J. Governor Gave Ex $6 Million

TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey's multimillionaire governor gave his ex-girlfriend, a powerful union leader, more than $6 million when they broke up in 2004, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine and Carla Katz, president of the Communications Workers of America Local 1034, have repeatedly refused to discuss the financial arrangement between them. The newspaper cited unidentified lawyers familiar with the deal and union officials who conferred with Katz during recent contract negotiations in its report.

The Times said the sources wanted anonymity because they feared political retribution.

It also said its investigation found no clear explanation as to why Corzine paid the money.

The agreement reportedly included a trust for Katz's two children, now 12 and 15, to attend college, a sport utility vehicle that cost about $30,000 and a cash payment used by Katz to buy a $1.1 million condominium in the same building where Corzine lives.

Mortgage records revealed in 2005 that Corzine gave Katz a $470,000 loan to buy a different home. The loan was forgiven around the time Corzine announced his gubernatorial bid in late 2005.

Through a spokesman, Corzine declined to respond to the Times' report. Katz also declined to comment on it when contacted Wednesday by The Associated Press.

A gubernatorial ethics advisory panel recently determined the payments neither caused a conflict for Corzine nor tainted recent state worker contract talks involving Katz's union because the money was paid before Corzine became governor in 2006.

The panel's report had noted that Corzine and Katz had remained on friendly terms. It said they two talked and e-mailed with each other during the early contract negotiations but that Corzine broke off communication in February after the contract talks heated up.

The contract talks with the Communication Workers of America resulted in a tentative deal to raise salaries but cut health and pension benefits for state workers. Katz opposed it, but it was ratified overwhelmingly.

Corzine, a multimillionaire from his stint as Goldman Sachs chairman in the 1990s, dated Katz from 2002 to 2004 when he was a U.S. senator.