Taylor Swift performs at Soldier Field in Chicago on The Eras Tour on June 5, 2023 (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

Ahead of Taylor Swift’s latest album being released Friday, Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison) is proposing that Wisconsin exile practices in the ticket selling industry that disadvantage fans trying to attend shows and events.

The bill “Stop Wildly Inflated Fees and Ticketing Industry Exploitation” — yes, that really is SWIFTIE for short — would require sellers to disclose the total cost of ticket prices to potential buyers, put a cap on how much resellers can charge for tickets and prohibit ticket-buying bots that resellers use. Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) and Rep. Jill Billings (D-La Crosse) are also coauthors on the bill.

The bill comes ahead of Swift releasing her 12th studio album — titled “The Life of a Showgirl” — on Friday.

Many states and lawmakers, including some of Wisconsin’s neighbors, started taking an interest in new laws to help regulate the live event ticket marketplace after Ticketmaster crashed during the initial sale of tickets to Swift’s The Eras Tour. Many of the mega pop star’s huge and dedicated fan base were down bad as secondary ticket prices for her tour soared, with some individual ticket prices rising to even more than $4,000.

The Michigan House passed a proposal in June that would curb bots for hoarding concert and event tickets. The Minnesota state government enacted legislation to help protect online ticket buyers in 2024.

“My daughters and I are Swifties. I would’ve loved to have taken them to see Taylor Swift live on the Eras Tour, but instead we saw the movie,” Roys said in a video with Style (Taylor’s Version) playing in the background and clips from the tour flashing on screen. “I didn’t even try to get tickets because I had heard the horror stories from so many friends of mine. This is not how it’s supposed to be. Live events should be for fans, not for profiteers.”

Roys is also seeking the Democratic nomination in the 2026 election for Wisconsin governor.

Several provisions in the bill seek to prevent fans from encountering a ticket hoax by barring resellers from listing tickets for resale before tickets have been put on sale, from putting tickets on sale if they don’t already own them and by capping secondary ticket sales, prohibiting a fee from exceeding 10% of the ticket’s initial price.

The bill also includes a provision to ensure ticket buyers can feel fearless when they make a purchase on the secondary market. Under it, resellers would be required to issue a full refund within 10 days of a request to a purchaser if a ticket is counterfeit, the event is canceled, the ticket doesn’t fit the description provided or the date or time of the event is moved. 

Bots — devices or software that get around security measures or access control systems on a ticket selling platform to bypass purchasing limits — would also be prohibited under the bill from purchasing more than eight tickets for one event and circumventing the ticket queue, presale codes or waiting periods when a sale is going on. 

“If you’re a fan, you deserve the chance to go see your favorite artist without being exploited by unscrupulous scalpers, by third-party bot farms that drive up prices and other practices that exploit fans and venues and artists,” Roys said. “All of us deserve to come together and share these wonderful live events without these kinds of consumer protection violations.” 

Under the bill, violators would be subject to civil forfeitures of at least $15,000 for each day the violation occurs; $1,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions;  and an amount equal to five times the total price of each ticket. 

A person could also be subject to a civil forfeiture of at least $10,000 per ticket listed, advertised, sold or resold in violation of the provisions.

Democratic Senators called attention to cuts to two veterans programs taking effect in October due to funding being left out of the state budget by Republican lawmakers. The Wisconsin Senate passing the 2025-27 budget bill in July. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)

State lawmakers have failed to find a solution to stop cuts taking effect in October to two Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs programs that help veterans struggling with homelessness and mental health issues. 

The Veterans Housing and Recovery Program (VHRP) is closing two of its locations, one in Chippewa Falls and the other in Green Bay, and the Veterans Outreach and Recovery Program (VORP), which serves veterans dealing with mental health and substance use issues and aims to reduce the suicide rate among veterans, is set to lose seven positions.

The VHRP has been the center of back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for months since the announcement of the closures in July. 

A Republican bill to fund the program received a hearing in September, but it was too late to stop the closures. 

VORP launched in 2015 with the help of a federal mental health grant. It is now state funded and Evers used American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2023 to expand the reach of the program, but those funds have run out. 

Gov. Tony Evers had requested seven positions and more than $1.1 million to help support the program, but Republican lawmakers stripped that proposal from the state budget. Those seven positions were set to expire in October without the additional funds, though the cuts have already taken effect with the state Department of Veterans Affairs reducing the number of regions under the program from 16 back to 11.

The additional employees had helped the agency reach more veterans, provide support in a more timely manner and give veterans more individual attention, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. In 2023-24, the program provided services to 2,222 people — a nearly 70% increase compared to the prior year.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) and Sen. Jamie Wall (D-Green Bay) called attention to the cuts during a press call on Tuesday, blaming Republicans for the failure to provide the needed funding. 

“I’m frustrated, and I’m devastated at the same time,” Hesselbein said. “As of today, these facilities are closed and the veterans they once housed have been relocated.” 

Hoey said at the hearing on the bill from Sen. Andre Jacque (R-New Franken) that the earliest the Chippewa Falls facility would be able to reopen is sometime after Oct. 1, 2026. The Green Bay location, he said, could be reopened relatively quickly if there was funding and depending on whether the federal government would approve a request for a change to its scope. 

Hesselbein noted that Evers and Democratic lawmakers have provided several opportunities for Republicans to keep the VHRP sites open and provide funding to VORP. 

Democratic lawmakers, led by Hesselbein and Rep. Robyn Vining (D-Wauwatosa), introduced a bill to provide funding for the VORP positions, but it hasn’t received a hearing in the Republican-led Legislature. No Republican lawmakers have signed on to it, nor have they introduced their own version that would provide the funding.

A separate bill, authored by Wall, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Brunswick) and Rep. Jodi Emerson (D-Eau Clare), would provide the necessary funding for the VHRP sites. It previously would have provided $1.9 million, but an amendment to the legislation increases that to $2.6 million, which, Wall said, would be necessary to restart the programs. 

“My disappointment is with the leadership of legislative Republicans that has not made this program, has not made that bill, has not made homeless veterans a priority over the last few months,” Wall said. “They’ve run out the clock until here we are on Sept. 30, with the funding going away now. It’s possible to revive these programs… but it’s going to take a little bit more money and a lot more time. In the best case, we’re looking at next fall before we can stand up these programs again.” 

Sen. Eric Wimberger (R-Oconto) blamed Evers for the closures, again, in a statement on Tuesday, claiming that there is money available to fund the programs.

“The Legislature appropriated enough funding to support the Veterans Housing and Recovery Program,” Wimberger said. “Evers simply refused to spend it. The closing of veterans’ homeless shelters is his decision alone, and he quite literally is refusing to use available funding in the exact same manner as he did last year to run those facilities.”

Evers has previously rejected Wimberger’s claim, noting that a paper from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau to the Joint Finance Committee warned lawmakers that additional funds were needed for the program. 

A letter from Republican lawmakers also noted that there has been a balance that the Department of Veterans Affairs  returns to the state treasury at the end of the year, though Hoey has noted that the agency is “only allowed to spend the money [the Legislature] tell[s] us to spend.”

Wall made a similar point during the press conference, saying that “we don’t just write a blank check to the Department of Veterans Affairs or any other part of the state budget. What we do is say that there’s so much money in this budget line for this program and so much money in that budget line for this other program, and so the fact that the Department of Veterans Affairs had surplus money and other budget lines doesn’t mean that they could just willy-nilly take that and spend that any way they wanted to for the benefit of this program.”

Hesselbein said this is a continuation of Republicans’ “strange finger pointing.” 

Hesselbein used the deadline for the closures and cuts as an opportunity to talk about what Democrats would do if they were in the majority. Democrats are seeking to flip the Senate in 2026 and need to win two additional seats to do it.

“Republicans chose to do nothing,” Hesselbein said. “Rest assured in a couple of years, when I’m the majority leader, these kinds of antics won’t be tolerated in a Democratic majority, but unfortunately, while that day is on the horizon, it’s not here yet.”