Lawmakers ask for clearer breakdown of Supreme Court and SCAO spending amid audit requests

State Court Administrator Tom Boyd told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Corrections and Judiciary that the Michigan Supreme Court controls how funds in the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) and Supreme Court administration line items are spent and offered to provide detailed retrospective accounting to address lawmakers’ transparency concerns.

The request came during a committee meeting called to review roughly $14,500,000 appropriated to the SCAO line and about $16,500,000 in the Supreme Court administration line. Boyd said the constitutional authority to allocate those dollars rests with the Supreme Court and that much of the funding pays staff who provide statewide services to courts.

"The Supreme Court, through the chief, is responsible for how this gets laid out," Tom Boyd, State Court Administrator, said during the hearing. "We can tell you in the fiscal year 24 where we spent every dime for those two lines."

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