CARSON CITY -- Nevada lawmakers on Monday were urged to approve a $98 million, two-year budget for the state Supreme Court and district and family courts, an increase of 29 percent sought because of higher, more complex caseloads.

Chief Justice Bill Maupin also told a joint panel of the Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees that a study panel has recommended 30 percent pay increases for judges -- to $182,000 yearly for members of the Supreme Court and to $169,000 for district judges, effective in January 2009.

Maupin said more funding for specialty courts is vital, especially drug courts which are seeing more and more defendants who use methamphetamines. Two-thirds of drug court defendants say "meth is their drug of choice," he said.

The specialty courts have relied heavily on assessments tacked onto traffic tickets, but Maupin said judges don't want another assessment atop the three already in place. Instead, he said the budget includes a proposed $5.1 million general fund appropriation for such courts.

Responding to questions from Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, who asked whether a tax increase might be needed to generate the $5.1 million, Maupin said he wasn't asking for a tax hike, but did see the need for a more stable revenue source for the specialty courts.

Maupin also said the seven justices on the Supreme Court disposed of nearly 2,400 cases in 2006, but started 2007 with more than 1,300 cases pending. To help handle the caseload, the budget proposes 22 new staff positions on the high court, which is an increase of about 10 percent.

Besides the requested approval of the general fund spending for the existing court system, lawmakers also will be asked to try again with a plan for an intermediate court of appeals, at a level between the Supreme Court and the district courts.

The intermediate court requires a constitutional amendment, which would have to be passed by the 2007 Legislature and again by the 2009 Legislature before going to a public vote in 2010.