TOPEKA, Kan. — In January, Kansas lawmakers will consider a proposed 50-cent per pack increase in the state cigarette tax, the Lawrence Journal-World reports. The extra funds would be earmarked for health-care reform.

However, members of the House-Senate Health Policy Oversight Committee remain divided on whether such a hike would pass. “It’s hard to see the House passing a tax increase in an election year,” said state Rep. Jeff Colyer.

But state Sen. Jim Barnett said such an increase has a better chance of approval if the money funded reductions in the cost of health care. “Are we going to continue to grow a system that is not performing well now, or are we going to use those dollars to actually transform the system and get to some of those root causes,” of rising health-care costs, Barnett said.

Alan Conroy, director of the Kansas Legislative Research Department, said the proposed half-dollar per pack cigarette tax hike would generate $60 million to $65 million annually for the next three fiscal years. Without a cigarette tax increase, he said there is not enough revenue currently in budget projections to fund the health-care recommendations.

Recommended by the Kansas Health Policy Authority, the cigarette tax increase is part of a package of 21 changes, which also includes a ban on smoking in public places across the state.