Cigarette taxes are gold rush for states

USA Today reports:

Cash-strapped states are hitting smokers hard in the pocketbook, raising cigarette taxes to help plug budget shortfalls.

So far this year, legislators have voted to raise cigarette taxes by $1 per pack in Utah and 75 cents a pack in New Mexico. At least half a dozen other states have been considering increases, including tobacco-growing South Carolina and Georgia. In 2009, 14 states and the District of Columbia raised cigarette taxes.

So much action is unusual: This is only the 10th time since 1950 that so many states have raised cigarette taxes at once, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).