AUGUSTA — Health advocates considering a petition drive to raise the cigarette tax in Maine to pay for public health programs say they would need organizational and financial strength before taking on the cigarette industry.

“To undertake that kind of task, we really would need to have a very strong coalition of organizations, as well as a fairly hefty amount of money behind us, because it would be a lightning rod for the tobacco industry, which would come out with both guns blazing,” said Ed Miller, executive director of the American Lung Association of Maine.

Miller said he would like to have a final decision by the summer in order to begin a petition drive next fall for a statewide referendum.

Currently, consumers must pay a 37-cent tax above and beyond the regular 6 percent sales tax for a box of 20 cigarettes. In fiscal 1995, taxes on tobacco products raised $48.6 million in Maine, according to the state Bureau of Taxation. The last increase in the cigarette tax was 4 cents in 1991.

“We think there’s good public support for this, particularly if the money raised will be used to prevent the epidemic of youth smoking,” he said.

Several other states have found that raising the cigarette tax results in a decrease in tobacco use by youngsters, said Miller.

“We have a major problem going on now in Maine in that the rate of youth smoking has increased for the first time in a number of years,” he said. “This is one of the very few things that’s been found to have an impact.”

As part of a comprehensive package of reforms submitted in the last legislative session, the Maine Healthcare Reform Commission proposed tripling the cigarette tax to $1 to raise $70 million for public health programs.

But lawmakers were reluctant to support any tax increases, and the governor promised to veto the measure if it reached his desk.