Bay State residents would have to pay an extra 50 cents in taxes for cigarettes under Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal that would help generate $260 million in revenue for the Commonwealth’s new budget.

Massachusetts currently has a $2.51 tax on each pack of cigarettes, so the proposed law would increase the tax to $3.01. The last tax hike came in 2008 when the Legislature increased the tax from $1.51 to $2.51 per pack.

Senate President Therese Murray, who would help determine if a cigarette tax increase passes once initiated, declined to comment to The Daily Free Press on Monday.

“The Senate can’t initiate a tax,” she said in an interview with The Boston Herald. “We’ll see what the House does as they prepare their budget.”

Under the proposed plan, the state would grant the new revenue to the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund. The estimated $73 million would help cover part of the cost to allow legal immigrants to join this subsidized health insurance plan.

As of the end of last year, 16.1 percent of in-state adults identified as cigarette smokers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This puts Massachusetts in ninth place compared to the rest of the country with respect to a tobacco-consuming population.

Professor Michael Siegel, a tobacco expert in Boston University’s School of Public Health, said a tax hike on tobacco products is beneficial if revenue is directed toward prevention and treatment programs for tobacco addiction.

He said the proposed legislation would have an impact on smokers cutting down their tobacco habits.

“There’s very strong evidence that when you increase the price of cigarettes, consumption goes down,” Siegel said.

But the extra fee is not worth it, he said, if it goes toward ambiguous causes.

“The more important question is what they are going to do with the money,” he said. “In my opinion, the money should go toward treatment.”

Although the state’s extra tax on alcohol was removed, Siegel said it was helpful to the state because revenue went toward alcohol treatment. This, he said, is what needs to happen with the tax proposal on tobacco.

Many tobacco smokers come from a lower income bracket, Siegel said, so a hiked tax may further prevent them from buying cigarettes habitually. He said if these particular smokers are paying extra for every pack, they are harming both their health and their finances.

“If the money is going toward smoking-related services,” he said, “then it’s fair.”