SPRINGFIELD -- As the Commonwealth of Massachusetts began collecting an additional dollar from cigarette smokers via a tax increase Wednesday, the reaction on the streets of Springfield was mixed.

To David Glantz, owner of Buckeye Bros. Smoke Shop on Main Street in the South End, the increase -- from $2.51 to $3.51 in tax per pack -- represents a potential threat to his sales. Glantz said that as name-brand cigarettes like Marlboros and Newports rise to about $10 a pack, he expects to take a financial hit.

"If they were raising the taxes in all states at the same time, it would be one thing. But so many people will just travel to New Hampshire where the taxes are less and stock up rather than buying locally, I'll probably lose some business," Glantz said. "Plus, you have people going to Westover (Air Reserve Base) and having someone with a base pass buy them there to avoid the state taxes. It just isn't fair for stores like mine."

Springfield resident Jon Athan, 27, says he's smoked for about six years and he feels the tax increase is exploiting people with addictions.

"I go to work every day and I happen to smoke. I think this new tax is ridiculous. I have a family, rent to pay and unfortunately a nicotine addiction," Athan said. "When I started it was about $6 a pack and now it's going to be $10. That's a lot of money but quitting isn't cheap either. I'd like to quit, but for now I'll probably have to start making sacrifices in other areas to compensate for this. What can I do?"

But in the eyes of Ricky Dixon, a Springfield native who's since moved to East Longmeadow, the cigarette tax increase has the potential to be a positive thing.

"If this tax increase inspires more people to quit, than I think it's a good thing. I smoked for about 15 years and finally quit when my 5-year-old son told me, as I lit a cigarette, that he saw my lungs in school and was scared," Dixon said. "That day changed everything for me. So if this helps people now, I'm all for it."

For Mario Abigliano of Springfield, a former smoker who puffed for about 32 years, the tax increase isn't high enough.

"So now it's $10 a pack here? In New Jersey they're about $14.50 a pack. I think they should cost $20 a pack," Abigliano said. "It took me landing in the hospital dying of a major heart attack to finally make me stop, and the fact that they were $14 a pack was part of it. I wouldn't pay that much for cigarettes so it helped me quit. It probably saved my life."

But the potential to make more people kick the habit, which is considered a stronger addiction than cocaine and heroin, isn't enough to make everyone embrace the tax increase.

Kirsten Hughes, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said the new cigarette tax -- which accompanies increases in the gasoline tax and the tax on computer software services -- is an example of Democrats relying too heavily on taxes as a form of new revenue.

"The return to the cigarette tax is another indication that Beacon Hill has no new solutions for Massachusetts," Hughes said in a statement. "GOP lawmakers tried to give taxpayers a fair deal by offering a tax-free plan to finance the same transportation projects, but Democrats decided to hit every single working family with more taxes instead."

Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick has been going back-and-forth with the state legislature over funding for transportation projects across the state. After Patrick originally pitched a plan to increase the state's 5.25 percent income tax to 6.25 percent while slashing the sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent to raise $1.9 billion, the two sides last week agreed on a new $500 million tax law, which included the cigarette and gasoline tax hikes.

Glantz, in addition to opposing the cigarette tax from a business perspective, said he feels Patrick and legislators are picking on a group of people who can be an easy target: the poor.

"Poorer people are the ones who typically smoke these days and they are the ones that can least afford this," he said. "It's easy to pick on the poor people with new taxes but why don't they instead increase the excise tax on owning a yacht, or a second or third home instead?"

A full report on the new tax increases and reaction from across the state will be in Thursday's edition of The Republican.