Like many people who stopped at the Friendly Kitchen for a free meal Wednesday afternoon, Lisa Wheeler followed her lunch with a smoke on the front porch.

Wheeler's only income is a $579 monthly disability check she receives because she suffered brain damage in her youth, she said. Now that the Legislature passed a 28-cent increase in the cigarette tax, Wheeler is unsure how she will pay for the two packs she smokes daily. But she said she'll find a way.

"That's the only way I can deal with life is to have a cigarette,"said Wheeler, 40, who shares an apartment with a friend in Pittsfield. "I'm just trying to deal with life."

Lawmakers voted Wednesday to raise taxes on cigarettes to 80 cents a pack to help balance the state budget. The tax is expected to raise $87 million for school funding.

While New Hampshire still boasts the lowest cigarette tax in New England, much of the tax burden is shouldered by the poor. In New Hampshire, 33 percent of adults with a yearly household income below $20,000 are smokers, whereas only 14 percent of those with a household income of $75,000 or more smoke, according to a 2003 report from the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Many smokers interviewed Wednesday afternoon are on fixed incomes for disabilities. Some are patients at Riverbend Community Mental Health.

"If we tax cigarettes anymore, a lot of the mental health people won't know what to do," said Dan, a 27-year-old client at Riverbend who would not give his last name. "They need something to go with on daily life."

Dan, who sat between two other smoking clients, held up his cigarette and said, "My best friend."

Pam Walsh, spokeswoman for Gov. John Lynch, said the tax increase is modest. Massachusetts's cigarette tax is $1.51, which, combined with other taxes, means a pack of cigarettes typically costs 91 cents more in the Bay State. Maine lawmakers just voted to double thecigarette tax there to $2 per pack, and Rhode Island's cigarette tax is the nation's highest: $2.46 a pack.

Smoking-related illnesses cost New Hampshire between $230 to $466 million annually, and one in three smokers will eventually die of a tobacco-related disease, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. But even some smokers think the medical costs associated with smoking justify a higher price per pack.

"We're the ones that run up all the bills," said Mike Tarbassian, 32, a jewelry salesman who lives in Concord. "You're in the hospital with a tracheotomy smoking a cigarette. It's ridiculous."

Tarbassian, who smokes about two packs a week, said the cigarette tax is almost like having smokers pay the state in advance for health care costs they may run up in the future. Besides, it's not as though people can't avoid the tax.

"Nobody needs cigarettes," he said. "Smoking is a luxury."

Noelle Pelillo, a smoker for 30 years, said she'll have to quit because she can't afford to pay any more for cigarettes. Pelillo, 50, said she already spends $100 of her monthly $175 grocery budget on Basic brand cigarettes. She quit the Atkins diet because she said she could no longer afford the packaged low-carb foods and fresh meats and vegetables the diet requires.

"I can afford macaroni, pasta, stuff that will fill you up but it's not particularly good for you," said Pelillo, who works as an administrative assistant at Institution Recycling in Concord.

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