Whether lawmakers return to Augusta this summer or wait to face a shortfall in January, they will be looking for a source of revenue to help pay, among other things, steeply rising health care costs. And they will look, illogically enough, at the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which emphasizes smoking prevention and therefore saves Maine health care money. Before lawmakers take even more money from that fund, they should raise taxes.

Or, more specifically, a tax. The current cigarette tax is $1. The average, per-pack cost in direct medical care produced by smoking is $4.30, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The difference in the tax and the cost of medical care is paid by the public either through higher private insurance costs or through taxes for Medicaid, Medicare and state and local public employee health plans. The annual contribution of about $55 million from the tobacco companies to the state still leaves the gap at more than $300 million every year. Why, legislators should be asked, are Maine taxpayers required to subsidize the cost of cigarettes? Smoking, the new tobacco ads point out, is an adult choice. It certainly has adult consequences and should have an adult price.

Maine and most other states already have found that raising the cigarette tax is a highly effective way to discourage teen-agers from starting the habit. Maine’s smoking rate drops each time the tax goes up and the rate stays down. This is a long-term benefit to individual health, health-care costs and worker productivity. Maine leaders talk endlessly about improving the state’s business climate; raising the cigarette tax results in a healthier working population and lower health-insurance bills. That’s a considerable improvement to the climate.

Tobacco lobbyists will argue that taxing something just because it is bad for you pushes Maine way down a slippery slope of fiscal nitpicking. What about alcohol or French fries or a bologna sandwich, they’ll ask, should they too be taxed? Two replies: A glass of wine or a fatty sandwich at least has some health or nutrition benefit, unlike cigarettes, and does not drive up health care dollars anywhere near the extent cigarettes do. Second, what about them? If someone can make the case that these products are harmful and costly to the public, tax them more heavily and drop the heavy taxes on property and income.

One-third of the Fund for a Healthy Maine – the tobacco money – now goes into the General Fund. The $180 million shortfall in the current budget makes it a target for more cuts, but a 50- or 60-cent increase in the tobacco tax would produce $50 million a year, reduce teen smoking further and cut tax-supported health costs brought on by smoking. After years of forcing taxpayers to subsidize this deadly habit, lawmakers should give nonsmokers a break.