The next round of budget extender bills will include nearly $440 million dollars in projected revenue from cigarette taxes and the collection of taxes on tobacco products on Native American reservations.

If passed in the Legislature next week, the price of cigarettes would go up $1.60 per pack on July 1st and other tobacco products such as cigars and chewing tobacco would go up from 46 to 75 percent of the wholesale price. That would take effect August 1st.

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A sleep-deprived State Budget Director Robert Megna informed the press of the measure late Friday– at first playfully downplaying its significance.

“It’s a plain vanilla extender with a few major exceptions,” said Megna.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said on Capital Tonight Thursday that he was pushing for a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes, but the budget office decided tack on 60 more cents.

“In discussion with the Legislature, we felt that this is one of the things that is important for health care,” said Megna.

“We could have gone higher especially if we weren’t going to do potentially some of the other health care-releated revenues.”

However, It’s unclear where the Senate majority stands on the issue. Spokesman Austin Shafran did not have an immediate comment because the members of the Democratic conference have not yet been briefed on the issue.

The other part of the plan is to collect taxes cigarettes sold on reservations to non-natives beginning September 1st–something some tribal leaders consider an act of war.

Megna does not think the measure will cause an uprising of violence on the native reservations.

“We’re involved in intensive negotiations with all of the Native American tribes to try and resolve any outstanding issues with respect to the sale of cigarettes, but I think as the governor said in the budget and what we’re trying to achieve here–we’re trying to get closure on this issue in the most inoffensive way to the Native Americans and the least intrusive way possible.”

Here is the entire conversation with Megna and the Albany press:

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