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Albany’s Legislative Gazette reports on the inclusion of hundreds of millions in funding for improvements to the Javits Center in the budget, despite the likelihood that the facility is being phased out:

Some lawmakers, including Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, have expressed concern over the spending of $350 million when the benefits may last only a few years, seemingly in direct contrast with Cuomo’s efficient spending efforts.

“Why are we still scheduled to spend [hundreds of millions of dollars] in expansion and renovation of the Jacob Javits Center since the governor has made clear his interest in an alternative site in New York City for conventions?” asked Krueger during a Jan. 31 joint budget hearing.

You can read the full article here.

I want to take the opportunity to explain what happened after midnight on Thursday morning in the State Legislature.

Late Wednesday night and Thursday morning, around midnight on the morning of the Ides of March, my Senate Democratic colleagues and I refused to support a backroom deal on redistricting that protects incumbent legislators by disenfranchising minorities, discriminating against voters from New York City and Long Island, and blatantly violating the Voting Rights Act.

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Fox 23 was at the capitol for the redistricting vote. The Democratic Conference walked out, refusing to participate in midnight votes resulting from backroom deals without even the opportunity for review and debate.

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Liz and her fellow co-chairs of the Bipartisan Pro-Choice Legislative Caucus wrote for today’s Albany Times Union supporting President Obama’s stance on contraceptive coverage for all women, regardless of where they work. They wrote:

It’s no secret that women often struggle with the price of birth control. In New York, we’ve been fortunate — birth control and other reproductive health services have been part of insurance plans here since the passage of the Women’s Health and Wellness Act in 2002.

But even in New York, a woman with health insurance could still pay up to $50 a month or more in co-pays for birth control. In many other states, birth control can be excluded from coverage entirely. When we heard one of the benefits in the new national health care law would be coverage of preventive care, including birth control, without co-pays, we were relieved.

The BPCLC announced the election of its four new co-chairs last week. Liz is one of the four, and is joined by Assemblymember Ellen Jaffee (D-Suffern), Assemblymember Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro), and Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Yonkers).

A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision overturning California’s Proposition 8, the ballot proposition that attempted to outlaw same-sex marriage in California. You can read Liz’s statement on today’s victory, cited in Capital New York.