Compensation Under the Microscope: Michigan

Michigan’s state compensation statute took effect in 2017. It has been in effect long enough to allow pre-statute exonerees to file and resolve state claims. But, the statute is not so old such that prior processes for resolving claims skew the statistics. There was, however, initial uncertainty over the proper statute of limitations by which a claim must be filed in the Michigan Court of Claims. The Court of Claims’ interpretation led to the dismissal of about ten claims. Those were appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, the legislature amended the statute retroactively to impose a more generous statute of limitations. This glitch certainly lengthened the time it took to resolve some state compensation claims

Compensation under the Microscope: Washington

This edition of “Compensation Under the Microscope” explores: What Does Washington Do About Dual-Eligibles

Compensation Under the Microscope: Virginia

Enacted in 2004, the Virginia wrongful conviction compensation statute is unique in the United States. The decision to award compensation rests not with a court or an administrative agency, but with the state legislature. Unlike other compensation statutes that create an entitlement to compensation when a person is found eligible, the Virginia statute explicitly says that “[t]he payment and receipt of any compensation for wrongful incarceration shall be contingent upon the General Assembly appropriating funds for that purpose. This article shall not 2 provide an entitlement to compensation for persons wrongfully incarcerated or require the General Assembly to appropriate funds for the payment of such compensation.” Va. Code § 8.01-195.10(A)

COMPENSATION UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: FLORIDA

Of the states with more than ten exonerees and with long-standing wrongful compensation statutes, Florida has the second-lowest percentage of exonerees who apply for compensation after Missouri. This edition of “Compensation Under the Microscope” explores some explanations for the low rate of filing and, thus, the low level of compensation awarded in Florida

Reforming and privatizing Hungary's road haulage

The Volan units (previously unitary but now formally dismembered) provide public transport services for both passengers and freight, and make up the largest enterprise in Hungary's road transport industry. Immediately after separation in 1989, the Volan group of units employed 67,000 persons and operated 12,672 trucks and 8,010 buses. In 1989 Volan carried 34 percent of Hungary's professional road haulage tonne-kilometers. This report focuses on options for restructuring the Volan group. It therefore also considers the content and implementation of Hungary's overall road transport policy as well as related questions of finance and taxation, all of which define the conditions under which the Volan successor enterprises, however transformed, will have to prove themselves.Roads&Highways,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry

Reforming and privatizing Poland's road freight industry

This study explores options for the restructuring and the privatization of PKS, Poland's main state-owned enterprise for road transport of passengers and general freight. As regards privatization, the focus of the study is on road freight haulage operations of PKS and not on its passenger operations by bus. Privatization of road haulage (trucking) is intended to raise the productivity of resources employed in transport and to thereby assist in the recovery of the economy and of employment. The key to this outcome is the creation of a competitive environment and, equally, the introduction of management by, or under the control of, owners with a clear right to the net income from the business. The process of privatization must therefore allow wide scope for the development of commercially alert and market-oriented management. The scope and form of feasible privatization depend also on how road haulage will be regulated and on financing possibilities for private buyers, investors or tenants. The study therefore also analyzes the general organization of Poland's road haulage, the operations of its different segments, and discusses transport regulation, financing and taxation.Roads&Highways,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Transport and Trade Logistics,Common Carriers Industry

Are Federal Exonerees Paid?: Lessons for the Drafting and Interpretation of Wrongful Conviction Compensation Statutes

In this third of a series of articles on wrongful conviction compensation statutes, Professor Jeffrey Gutman tackles the first statute attempted to be passed in the United States – the federal wrongful conviction compensation statute. Championed in concept by Edwin Borchard, it was in fact poorly drafted, and recommendations by Attorney General Homer Cummings to improve it were only partly successful. This Article retraces the long legislative history of the statute which is dotted with sloppy language and reasoning, unexplained amendments and an unfortunate focus on who was not to benefit from it, rather than who was. This tangled legislative history has resulted in two lines of cases, which either interpret it and the statute faithfully with poor results or rebel against it yielding better results as a matter of policy, but with dubious statutory support. Based on his empirical research, Gutman reveals that of 118 people listed in the National Registry of Exonerations as having been exonerated of federal crimes, only two have been awarded compensation under it. He demonstrates that a combination of unnecessary and ill-considered statutory language and an overreading of the legislative history have yielded results unmoored from Professor Borchard’s modest vision of the statute. Gutman argues that the often-misread legislative history’s concern about compensating those whose convictions were set aside on technical or procedural grounds has led several courts to misconceive the plaintiff’s burden of showing their innocence. This manner of approaching the question of innocence, what Gutman calls “room thinking” requires petitioners to disprove all evidence of guilt – the grounds upon which there remains “room” for concluding that the exoneree may still be guilty. He contends that this approach is inconsistent with the established preponderance of the evidence standard and should be replaced by a familiar burden shifting analysis that will result in more balanced judicial decision-making in difficult cases. Last, Gutman explores a petition for a certificate of innocence litigated in Wisconsin which provides a unique opportunity to stress-test each of the three principal prongs of the statute. The result of that successful petition, which could have foundered on any of the required prongs, is surprising. Examination of that case and a comparison to state wrongful conviction compensation statutes, results in Gutman’s concrete proposals for the amendment of the statute and its administration truer to the visions of Borchard and Cummings

Compensation under the Microscope: Wisconsin

Wisconsin has one of the nation’s oldest wrongful conviction compensation statutes, dating to 1913. It also rivals New Hampshire for offering exonerees with the least compensation. The Wisconsin Claims Board can award eligible exonerees no more than $25,000 in total at a rate of no more than$5,000 per year incarcerated. Within the Wisconsin statute lies a small and seldom-used door to more appropriate awards. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals in June, 2022 issued a divided opinion that may crack that door open just a bit wider. For states with particularly ungenerous statutes, but without the desire to change them, the Wisconsin approach could offer an appealing alternative. This report examines the Wisconsin statute and the case, brought by Derrick Sanders, that led to its reinterpretation

Public Procurement: The Achilles Heel of Good Governance

Development aid is defined as the financial aid given by governments and agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political needs of developing countries. With the government acquisition of goods, civil works, and services representing between 15-20 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for most countries, the value of procurement policy and its application are very high. Recent high profile cases in the news, ranging from the military purchase of clothing from foreign sources that raise human rights issues, to the criticism of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act website, to a range of corruption cases around the world, are bringing policymakers’ attention to a field traditionally treated as equivalent in notoriety to the plumbing and wiring of government facilities. These cases, however, illustrate the range of objectives that public policy now places of the public procurement of goods and services, and the need for a broader dialogue. Reforms worldwide are being discussed through the World Trade Organization (WTO) Government Procurement Agreement and the European Union as well as by the multilateral development institutions. Underlying these reforms is a tension between a rules-based system with limited, if any, discretion to avoid fraud and corruption versus an outcome based focus that requires greater use of discretion and judgment to ensure better adaptation to circumstances. The lecture will focus primarily on the public procurement debate for development aid; but the issues have a resonance well beyond developing countries

Changing the Focus of Urban Transport from Congestion to Access

The traditional approach of urban transport planners has been to focus on the reduction of traffic congestion. More recently, with the growth of cities worldwide and the ever-present challenge of congestion, transport and urban planners have started to focus on the concept of access as the ultimate goal. How can we ensure and enhance access to jobs, education, commerce, and other services by all segments of the population? This requires a more complementary effort by transport planners and urban planners as well as finance and fiscal experts. The lecture will follow this shift in emphasis, the opportunities it poses, and the challenges in adapting and adopting solutions. It will be based on work being undertaken by the Metropolitan Policy and Global Economy and Development programs at Brookings