JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – It’s not every day that tobacco companies find themselves on opposite sides of a cigarette tax hike debate, but that’s the scenario playing out in Missouri this year, McClatchy DC reports. Two rival ballot proposals to increase the state’s 17-cents-per-pack tobacco tax—the lowest in the United States—have divided the tobacco industry.

One proposal would request voters formally amend the Missouri constitution to jack up the cigarette tax to 60 cents per pack, with the increased revenue earmarked for early childhood education. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. supports this measure, backing up that endorsement with a $1 million donation.

The second proposal would put before voters a 23-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase, with the additional revenue poured into road repairs. This measure has the sponsorship of the Missouri Petroleum Markets and Convenience Store Association, which has long opposed any increase of the tobacco tax. Smaller, value-brand tobacco firms, such as Cheyenne International, have given financial aid to passage of this measure.

Both proposals are being considered for the 2016 ballot. A key issue that has divided the tobacco companies is that large tobacco companies are required to make annual payments to the state as part of a 1998 legal settlement, but smaller tobacco companies weren’t part of that settlement. The higher tobacco tax bill addresses that difference.

No matter the proposal, raising tobacco taxes has yet to succeed in Missouri in recent years. Ballot efforts failed in 2002, 2006 and 2012.