State Senate President Stephen Sweeney wasted little time Tuesday snuffing out Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposal to raise an extra $218 million in his proposed state budget by hiking New Jersey’s tax on cigarettes.

“(The) cigarette tax is a big problem,” Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told reporters immediately after the governor delivered his third budget address.

Murphy on Tuesday unveiled a $40.9 billion spending plan for New Jersey state government that targets high-income earners and some businesses with tax increases, while putting up big increases in funding for public-employee pensions and public schools.

At $2.70, New Jersey’s tax on a pack of cigarettes is already tenth-highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation. Murphy wants to raise the tax to $4.35, which is on par with New York and Connecticut and behind only Washington D.C., which tacks on $4.50 to each pack of cigarettes sold.

The state Treasury Department estimated the tax hike would bring in an extra $218 million and the state would take in a total of $742 million in cigarette tax revenue next year.

Sweeney, meanwhile, said he would drop drop his two-year opposition to Murphy’s bid for a millionaires tax if the governor pours an extra $1 billion into the Garden State’s public-worker pension fund.

Beyond that, Sweeney doesn’t want to talk about additional taxes.

“Listen: I said I was open to the millionaires tax if there’s a billion dollars in new funding for the pension,” the Senate president said. “I don’t really think we need the other taxes. Period.”

Republicans, meanwhile, say they oppose bumping the cigarette tax.

“Absolutely against cigarette tax, because we’re competing with Pennsylvania, so all those businesses on the border are simply going to be hurt and those people who want the cigarettes are driving across the border," state Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, said.

Pennsylvania’s tax is $2.60 a pack.

“This is a historic problem in New Jersey where we tax our small businesses, basically, out of business,” Bramnick added.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @samanthamarcus.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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