Lighting up that cigarette will cost you.

In Alabama a new 25-cent per pack increase on cigarettes takes effect today, and local smokers are none too pleased to foot the bill for the state’s budget woes.

The tax hike is part of a $166 million revenue plan the Alabama Legislature passed last month during a second special session to help fill a $200 million hole in the 2016 budget. The state announced earlier this week that it would close five state parks in an attempt to cut costs. The cigarette tax is projected to raise about $70 million. 

“Our customers say prices are too high as it is,” said Dewayne Massey, owner of Tobacco Country on U.S. 278 in Cullman, Alabama. “More and more people are rolling their own cigarettes.”

Jan Massey, his wife, said customers have already begun grumbling about the price increase.

“They say ‘I guess they want us to quit,’” she said. “A lot of people will just switch to a cheaper brand.”

The Masseys have weathered rising cigarettes prices over the years, but tax hikes make their thin profit margins even thinner.

Marvin Pritchard of Cullman, Alabama said lawmakers should have enacted a tax that affects residents more broadly rather than just smokers.

“The American Cancer Society says 35 percent of Alabamians smoke, so that 35 percent has to pay 100 percent of the taxes?” Pritchard said. “Why don’t they find a way to make it more balanced. Most people own a car. Tax the tires. A lot of people drink soft drinks. Try something where everyone has to pay instead of just one small group.”

Garry Smith of Jones Chapel, Alabama was disgusted to hear news the cost of cigarettes would be on the rise.

“They (legislators) say they’re going to spend this money on this, but it always seems like they’re running out of money,” Smith said. “Someone is misusing the doggone money higher up the chain.”

The 25-cent per pack increase will also mean smokers pay more in sales tax which will generate more funding for the state and local governments. The cities of Cullman and Hanceville, Alabama each have cigarette taxes on sales within their jurisdictions on top of state and county taxes, with 5 cents per pack and 4 cents per pack respectively.

Hanceville Mayor Kenneth Nail is quick to point out that state lawmakers can raise the tax on tobacco products, but they’ve passed legislation barring municipalities from doing so to generate extra revenue.

State Representatives Corey Harbison, R- Good Hope, and Ed Henry, R- Hartselle, and Sen. Paul Bussman, R- Cullman, voted against the cigarette tax hike while Rep. Randall Shedd, R- Fairview, voted for it.

Democrats criticized the cigarette tax as a consumer tax and a temporary budget patch and said the state should be looking at other measures such as corporate and property tax increases or gambling. Gov. Robert Bentley originally proposed an 82-cent per pack cigarette tax increase as part of a $541 million revenue plan.

Owens writes for the Cullman, (Al.) Times.