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In fairness to merchants operating convenience stores and gas stations, who make a significant portion of their profits on cigarettes, any tax increase must...sin tax can cover a lot of sins.

That's why Long Island's legislators in Albany should support the request by Nassau, Suffolk and six other downstate counties for the power to levy a $2 per pack tax on cigarettes.

The most important benefit of increasing the cost of this legal vice is that it would reduce the number of smokers and discourage others, especially teens and younger children, from acquiring a deadly habit. The public impact is considerable as well: Illnesses caused by smoking cost every household in the state $1,000 a year to treat.

The other "sin" such a tax can cover is revenue shortfalls. In Nassau, the tax is projected to raise $26 million to $30 million a year, revenue the county wouldn't need to raise through property taxes.

The unified downstate effort, led by Judy Jacobs, the presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature, not only gives it considerable political heft but also ensures that no one county becomes the destination to buy cheap smokes. When New York City imposed a $1.50 tax, it drove business to the suburbs, especially at the Queens-Nassau border, which is why it is important that the city also seek to up its tax another 50 cents, to match the suburban tax level.

In fairness to merchants operating convenience stores and gas stations, who make a significant portion of their profits on cigarettes, any tax increase must go hand in hand with a crackdown on illegal sales on Indian reservations and through the Internet. It's not only merchants who lose revenue to illegal sales; the state loses an estimated $139 million annually because Indian tribes fail to collect the current $1.50 state tax on cigarette sales to non-Indians.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who pursued this issue aggressively as attorney general, must be just as determined as governor to stem the black market. Spitzer's proposal to share some of the state's $1.50 tax with the tribes - if they actually collect it - seems like a good strategy. It would put more money in state coffers and remove some of the temptation for the State Legislature to say no to the suburbs' request, in order to reserve any tax increases for Albany.