Lansing — The state of Michigan should centralize revenue collected through individual trial court costs in order to remove administrative pressures causing some judges to over-bill defendants to support court operations, a new study suggests.

Additionally, the state should chip in more taxpayer funds to help trial courts cover the costs, which currently rest largely on local communities.

The report on alternative funding for trial courts released Thursday by the Michigan Judicial Council comes more than 10 years into a debate over how best to fund trial courts while reining in a hodgepodge of court costs assessed on parties sometimes unable to pay.

The assessment of court costs to support trial court operations creates a “perverse incentive” for judges, who have to weigh justice with

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