PORTLAND, Maine - Cigarette smokers are angry at state lawmakers for singling them out for a big tax increase to help balance the budget. But most concede they won't resort to drastic steps like growing their own tobacco or crossing the border to buy smokes.

Doubling the tax on each pack of cigarettes from $1 to $2 will raise $142.8 million in fiscal 2006. That's $46 million more than the tax brought in this year and enough to save lawmakers from having to borrow money to balance the budget.

Many smokers are fuming.

"At the end of the day, smoking is a legal activity. In a society where we have freedom of choice, we should be allowed to do it and not be penalized for it," said Benjamin Snow, 49, of Portland.

Anti-smoking advocates lobbied for the tax increase as a way to encourage smokers to quit and reduce Maine's skyrocketing health-care costs. Democratic lawmakers embraced it to avoid borrowing money or making deep cuts to social services.

Smokers and retailers say it's disingenuous for legislators to claim that the tax is meant to encourage people to give up cigarettes.

"It was a quick fix for the state,"said Peter DiPietrantonio, owner of Three D's Variety Store in Biddeford. "I don't believe they want people to quit smoking. They want their money."

Three D's is one of the largest cigarette retailers in Maine. Each year, the store generates about $500,000 for the state through the excise tax. When the tax goes up in September, DiPietrantonio figures his sales will decline slightly.

He believes some will drive to New Hampshire or buy cigarettes via the Internet, where they are sold tax-free for as little as $1.50 per pack. Distributors and retailers also may increase prices to offset lost sales.

Ultimately, he said, the majority of smokers will foot the bill for the Legislature's spending plan even though many of them cannot afford it. In 2003, the median household income for Maine smokers was $29,352, compared with $43,070 for nonsmokers, according to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

Snow and other smokers wonder what would happen if the Legislature tried to levy an excise tax on coffee or scratch tickets or any other more acceptable habit.

"It's a very slippery slope we're on," said Rose Kouroyen, 58, of Bangor. "When does it stop?"

Rose said she considered growing her own tobacco, which is catching on in other parts of the country. Instead, she and her husband, Stephen, 61, decided to fight back by rolling their own cigarettes.

Using loose-leaf tobacco, which costs $15 for a pound bag, they say that their cigarettes cost 85 cents a pack - far less than Maine's average retail cost of $4.47 per pack.