If that's the idea, then, like kightp, I'd like to see some kind of direct link: Get a reliable estimate of the increased public health costs due to smoking (good luck with that, btw) and use that as a basis for figuring the total amount of revenue which needs to be raised from cigarette taxes. There's no reason to suspect that the County Board worked that way, however, and every indiciation that this was a quick-and-dirty way to plug an $80 million-dollar budget hole.