Wichita ? Kansas smokers are upset about plans to sharply increase the cigarette tax to help fill a budget hole created by Gov. Sam Brownback’s income tax cuts and say they will take their business to Missouri or Oklahoma if the tax hike passes.

Brownback has proposed boosting the tax on cigarettes from 79 cents a pack to $2.29 to address a deficit of about $422 million. The proposal isn’t popular among some lawmakers, especially those who live on the border with Missouri, which has the nation’s lowest cigarette tax, at 17 cents.

“Trickle-down economics did not work in the ’80s with Reaganomics, and it is stunningly clear that it’s not working here,” said Robin McAlpine, a smoker who lives in Wichita. “I shouldn’t be punished or penalized so that the governor can close the gap on his failed experiment.”

McAlpine is one of 29 smokers who responded to a Wichita Eagle questionnaire about the proposed increase. Of those, 18 said they would buy tobacco in a neighboring state if the tax increases, while seven said they would quit.

Rep. Marvin Kleeb, an Overland Park Republican who chairs the House Taxation Committee, said lawmakers may consider passing a smaller tobacco tax increase than the one Brownback proposed.

Mark Ebberly, a Derby smoker whose wife died of lung cancer, said he thinks the state would lose revenue from its heaviest smokers because of cheaper prices in neighboring states.

“It’s not just like, ‘Hey, I think I’ll go grab a pack of cigarettes,'” he said. “It’s planned — they know they’re going to smoke. They’re going to go where they can save money.”

At $2.29 a pack, the Kansas tax would be $1.26 higher than Oklahoma’s and $2.12 more than in Missouri.

“I don’t think there are that many smokers that will generate that kind of revenue that Brownback estimates,” said Suz White, who said she has been buying cigarettes outside of Kansas for six years. “Especially if people go across state lines.”

The Kansas Division of the Budget projects the higher tax would generate nearly $81 million more during the next fiscal year. The estimate includes a 20 percent drop in sales, which is about what Kansas saw when it raised the tobacco tax in 2002.

Ray Thorp, a Wichita resident who said he buys cigarettes for his 21-year-old daughter, said he would purchase smokes out of state when it’s convenient, but otherwise would be resigned to pay the higher Kansas tax.

“On the whole, it sounds good to tax the sin taxes,” he said. “But really, why do I have to pay for someone else’s good fortune?”