LANSING, MI (MPRN)-- State lawmakers are once again considering lifting Michigan’s ban on ticket scalping.
A state House panel this week will hear testimony on a bill that would allow people to sell tickets for more than face value without getting consent from the venue.
“I think it’s a common sense bill,” said bill sponsor Rep. Tim Kelly (R-Saginaw Twp.). “All it does is decriminalize the practice of, you know, ‘I’ve got a good, I want to sell that good to somebody else,’ and the state shouldn’t have to be involved in it.”
“It’s a law on the books that’s long overdue for coming off. And it’s a free market exercise that I think we should expand.”
Similar legislation failed to clear the state Senate last year. But Kelly says he’s confident the bill will get to Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk this time.
“The one obstacle has been removed,” Kelly said with a chuckle.
That obstacle, he says, was then Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), who is no longer in the Legislature due to term limits.
Critics of House Bill 4015 say it would open Michigan to dealers who will drive up ticket prices in the secondary market.