Tish James' top legislative priority of 2026

And the Mothership has landed in Planet Albany.

Good afternoon — It’s Monday and Freedom of Information Day.

In today’s CapCon:

• New York Attorney General Letitia James’ top legislative priority this year is a package of bills aimed at algorithmic pricing. Here’s what they would do.

• The Mothership landed in Albany Monday, with lawmakers providing a brief update on where the state budget stands.

• Hochul revealed on Monday when she’ll have a formal proposal for her desired changes to the state’s energy and emissions mandates.

• While Hochul is pushing a 25 foot buffer zone for protests around houses of worship, a new bill seeks a further distance.

• Here’s what’s happening at the state Capitol on Tuesday, March 17.

• This Week in New York History: Wells Fargo and the CitiBank robbery.

Names in today’s CapCon: Tish James, Kathy Hochul, Rachel May, Emerita Torres, Michael Gianaris, Michaelle Solages, Drew Ambrogi, Donald Trump, Micah Lasher, Sam Sutton, George Alvarez, Carl E. Heastie, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Liz Krueger, J. Gary Pretlow

---

New York Attorney General Letitia James (Will Waldron/Times Union)

⚖️ Tish targets ‘predatory pricing’ in new legislative push alongside state lawmakers

New York Attorney General Letitia James made a rare appearance at the state Capitol Monday.

She rallied with lawmakers to push a pair of bills intended to protect consumers from surveillance pricing, where someone’s personal data is used to determine how much they pay for a product. The bills are a top legislative priority for her office this year.

“Two neighbors can buy the same item at the same time and pay two different prices,” James said. “Others refer to it as surveillance pricing. I call it predatory pricing.”

The first bill, called the One Fair Price Act, would prohibit retailers from setting prices for goods or services using an algorithm fed with someone’s personal data. It’s sponsored by state Sen. Rachel May and Assemblywoman Emerita Torres.

That practice was the subject of a letter sent by James’ office in January to Instacart, which is alleged to have used algorithmic pricing to charge consumers different prices for the same products when viewing them on that service.

James said her office hasn’t heard back on that letter.

The second bill, called the Protecting Consumers and Jobs from Discriminatory Pricing Act, is more dystopian. But it’s intended to address something that’s already happening, James said.