Hutchinson Senator Scott Newman is pushing for a total dollar amount that the state might have to pay deputy registrars for losses due to major problems with MN-LARS, the state’s vehicle registration and licensing system. A bill moving forward in the Minnesota Senate has 10 million dollars, but Newman is concerned that could end up being only a “down payment”. “I do appreciate the fact that we’ve got to get some money out the door to the deputy registrars. I really do understand that, but I don’t want to be piecemealed to death,” he says.
Todd Hill with the Private Deputy Registrars Association says in addition to money lost on transactions, business valuations have been “driven into the ground”: “Families… built these businesses up in an effort to pass ’em on to their children or to sell them for their retirement, and those businesses are now worth pennies on the dollar.” “You have very clearly identified what has worried me the most about this situation,” says Newman, who wants a total dollar figure for what he calls an “ongoing, ever-escalating compensation package.”