If there was one safe bet at the beginning of the 2009 session of the Mississippi Legislature in January, it was that some kind of cigarette tax increase would be enacted. But events have intervened and the momentum has slowed.

It's time to pick up the tempo again.

Some legislators looking to a cigarette tax increase as a revenue source to plug budget gaps have lost their sense of urgency since Congress approved a massive stimulus package that includes significant help for the states.

Others appear less inclined toward a tax increase - or at least a big one - because in separate legislation Congress raised the federal tax on cigarettes by 61 cents a pack to pay for an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Neither of these occurrences has eliminated the need for Mississippi to raise its unconscionably low 18-cents-per pack tax, which is $1.03 below the national average and even 46 cents less than the average of the surrounding states.

Early in this legislative session the House passed an increase of 82 cents in the tax to $1 per pack. The Senate approved a 31-cent increase to 49 cents - what was then the average of Mississippi and its neighbors, before Arkansas increased its tax to $1.15.

The chief aim of a tax increase on tobacco should not be revenue generation. Deterring smoking, which not only kills people prematurely but raises everyone's health care costs, should be the primary objective. Temporary resolution of the state's budget problems during the current revenue squeeze is not a reason to back off a cigarette tax increase.

Ultimately, the state should hope that revenues from the cigarette tax actually level off or decline, because that would signal that people are giving up the single most destructive health-related behavior.

House and Senate conferees finally got together last week to discuss their separate bills and attempt to iron out differences. Not much progress was made.

Their work should continue in earnest.

For years a cigarette tax increase has enjoyed strong popular support yet has faced the veto pen of Gov. Haley Barbour. But the governor softened his opposition and eventually said he could support a modest increase.

With the chief obstacle out of the way, Mississippi legislators owe it to their constituents - those who don't smoke and those who do - to eliminate the disincentive to stop smoking such a low cigarette tax represents.

The 2009 legislative session should not adjourn without passage of a cigarette tax increase at least at the midpoint between what the House and Senate have already approved.