Ohio's proposed cigarette tax increase is, to many local smokers, a cross to bear. Their response is across the river.

        “I think it's ridiculous,” Howard Beatty, 48, of Cincinnati's East End, said Thursday as a trail of smoke from his Kool drifted over Fountain Square. “Why wouldn't you just go across the river?”

Denny St. Clair stocks cigarettes Thursday at the Covington Tobacco Shop. Northern Kentucky tobacco shops stand to prosper if Ohio raises cigarette taxes. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        Senate Republicans proposed the increase Thursday in response to the state's budget shortfall. It would increase the tax to 74 cents a pack from 24 cents. Legislators hope it would raise $373 million in its first full year.

        The tax rate is 3 cents in Kentucky, which is among the nation's leaders in tobacco production, consumption and rate of smoking-related deaths. Indiana's tax is 15.5 cents a pack. The national average is 34 cents.

        Smokers in central Ohio may have little choice but to pay up or cut back. For Cincinnatians, however, it is no coincidence that cigarette outlets are among the first businesses to greet them upon crossing into Northern Kentucky.

        “It's definitely going to bring more people across the river,” said Covington Tobacco Shop manager Dan Vogel, who, like many in Northern Kentucky, smiled at Ohio legislators' proposal.

        Passing a window sign that reads “Beat Ohio Prices,” customer Mark Randall left with a carton of Marlboros. He lives in Hamilton, but always buys smokes while making work deliveries in Northern Kentucky.

        A few smokers said the tax increase, if passed, might prompt them to try to quit. “I've already tried quitting,” said half-pack-a-day smoker Adam Bowling, 24, of Newport. “The savings, though, it would be nice to have a couple extra bucks in your pocket.”

        His downtown smoke-break companion, pack-a-day smoker Jon Kirkpatrick, 27, of Reading, called the tax hike “a debatable thing” that he supports.

        “Maybe I'll quit, up the road,” he said. “Fifty cents sure seems like nothing, but that's how they get you.”

        On quitting, Mr. Randall is more certain. No chance.

        “I've been a smoker since I was 15,” he said. “They could go up to $5 a pack and I'm sure I'll just pay it.”

        Mr. Beatty had another idea: switch back to cigars.

        “That's fine with us,” said former smoker Bill Buck, 81, at Cincinnati Tobacconist, owned by his daughter, Pat Coldiron.

        “But I don't think it's really fair balancing our budget on smokers.”

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