Major cigarette outlets in the county and region say their customers' reactions to a proposed 34- to 40-cent increase in per-pack costs is anger tempered by feelings that many groups in need of funds are in support, too many to overcome.

That doesn't mean smokers have given up, however. Jerry Stith, Elizabethtown, co-owner of JC's Cigarette Outlet, said over 1,000 signatures on petitions from his 16 stores opposing the tax have been sent to area House members.

"This proposal is just a quick fix," he said Monday "one that, if they had thought it through, won't bring in that much money, because it will trim a lot of other revenue generated by cigarette sales."

"Because our taxes are lower," he continued, "we have a lot of people crossing the state line to buy this legal product and, while they're here, they're buying gas, lottery tickets, groceries, and so forth."

Stith said the proposed tax is an unfair tax on mostly low-income and middle class Kentuckians. He cites his stores' losses in Indiana when the higher cigarette tax went in there.

"I lost over half my business in those stores," he said, "and if I lose that much here, I'm facing closing some stores and laying off workers."

Carl Goff who runs Tobacco Shack out of Town Peddler in Leitchfield, agrees the tax, if passed, "will create a real financial burden on my customers."

"Most of my customers are concerned about it," he said, "but they think it will happen."

Stith called the tax unfair to smokers, because the tax "picks on one segment of the population to make up budget shortfalls at the state level."

"It would be smarter," he said, "to do something like raise the gas tax by, say, a penny and the income tax by a quarter of a point and maybe add a dime to the cost of a pack of cigarettes."

"At least try that and see how it works, and if it's not enough, raise the tax another dime next year," he said.

He said Frankfort is "talking out of both sides of their mouths -- quit smoking for health, but keep buying those cigarettes because the state needs the money."

Stith said the governor can't have it both ways -- increasing the tax on cigarettes leads to fewer people smoking leads to less revenue.

"Adding $3.40 to $4 to a carton is too much for too many," he said.

On the receiving end of a flurry of responses to Gov. Ernie Fletcher's week-old proposal is District 17 Representative C.B. Embry, Jr. A Republican, Embry says about 95 percent of smokers are against the proposal, this from "a lot of individual contacts."

Embry said his reading of the tax's future is that it won't pass the House if it stands alone, "but if it's part of a larger tax reform or budget package, it will pass."

In general, he said, his constituent contacts are running two to one in favor of the higher tax, but most of those in favor are organizations.

Teachers, through the Kentucky Education Association, are very supportive, he said, as is the AARP, hoping the revenues can be used to bolster budgets of Medicaid and the disabled, among other needs.

"Groups like the Farm Bureau are supportive," he said, "hoping the revenue can go to tobacco farmers to make up for their loss of December checks from Phase II of the national Tobacco Settlement."

Embry said he had heard from several Chambers of Commerce in his district, "and they are supporting the additional tax, but only if it is part of a larger tax reform package."

He said the State Attorney General's Office is supportive of the tax, if the funds can be used for enforcement of drug laws.

Embry isn't saying yea or nay at this point.

"I'm waiting to see whether this is a stand-alone bill or part of a larger tax proposal and to find out how the income from the tax will be spent," he said.

"As soon as that becomes clear, I'll cast my vote," he said.

Kentucky's 3-cent tax is the lowest cigarette tax in the nation.