I agree with vehicle owner. It's not his problem, it's the State's problem. If anything, his tag has brought a system problem to the attention of those who are responsible for programming and, more importantly, issuing the fine based on incomplete, incorrect, or erroneous information.
The news reporter said it all in one sentence: "An alphabet soup of government bureaucracy..." No matter what level of government you're dealing with, the government employees usually will not, and probably can not, take the individual initiative to highly and correct the problem.
Keep that in mind the next time you're considering giving your federal, state, or local government more authority for anything.