Republicans couldn’t get enough Democratic votes Sunday night to override Governor Mark Dayton’s veto of a bill to reimburse deputy registrars for extra expenses caused by the troubled MN-LARS vehicle registration system. Farmington Republican Pat Garofalo said, “Only one thing standing between helping those deputy registrars and them facing a crisis in bankruptcy, and that is a do-nothing DFL.” Democratic Minority Leader Melissa Hortman responds the governor also wants money to fix MN-LARS. Hortman says, “When a partial solution gets fired at the governor… and there’s no comprehensive agreement to deal with the MN-LARS problems…, we don’t really have a solution at all — we just have one party throwing rocks at the other.”
House Speaker Kurt Daudt says, “When deputy registrars look at what happened this session and who had their back and who didn’t, they’re gonna be pretty disappointed that the governor looked at a bill that would have rescued them from this disaster he has created, and he said no.” The governor responds assistance to registrars helps a couple hundred Minnesotans, but he also wants money to fix MNLARS which would benefit hundreds of thousands, “so why wouldn’t we want to do both?”
Republicans say the state has already spent a hundred million dollars on a system that doesn’t work and are reluctant to throw good money after bad. Dayton fires back the real motivation is Republicans want to leave MN-LARS a shambles until after the election.