A lot of people have negative attitudes toward smokers. The government knows that well, so non-smokers don't care about the taxes on cigarettes going through the roof, and smokers can't do much about it.
They want to charge ridiculous prices for tobacco to pay for health care and some new scholarships (and here).
In Chicago, rising cigarette taxes have had the opposite effect, bringing tax revenues down instead of up.
Many smokers in Wisconsin are heading to the Illinois border to buy their smokes, for much less price.
How far will they go? We'll have to wait for 2010, by then, some of the tobacco tax hikes may get taken down. Until then it'll be a rough road.
