CHICAGO – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has proposed raising the city’s cigarette tax by 75 cents a pack, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

If the raise takes effect, Chicago’s combined state and local tax would total $7.42 a pack, the highest in the nation.

Chicago’s cigarette tax currently stands at 68 cents a pack, where it has stood since 2006. Over the past 18 months, Illinois and Cook County (where Chicago is based) have added more than $1 in per-pack taxes.

Chicago trails only New York City in combined state and local cigarette taxes, at $6.67 (versus NYC’s $6.86 a pack).

Already, with a sharp disparity in tobacco taxes between Illinois and its border states, smokers have been crossing state lines to purchase cigarettes in Wisconsin and Indiana. As a result, Chicago’s cigarette tax haul has plummeted since its last increase — from a high of $32.9 million in 2006 to $16.5 million this year.

Emanuel has also been pushing for a nationwide ban on menthol cigarettes, which he has called a “gateway to a lifetime of addiction.”