Democratic leaders say they don't have the votes to approve Gov. John Baldacci's $1-a-pack hike in the cigarette tax punching up to a $131 million hole in the proposed state budget.

"I don't think there's enough support on my side," said Senate President Beth Edmonds, who presides over a chamber where Democrats have just a one-vote lead over Republicans.

"I'm not sure we could pass it in the House even," added Speaker Glenn Cummings, who has a much more comfortable majority with 88 Democrats, 61 Republicans and two independents.

Both Democratic leaders said Wednesday they would not rule out a smaller increase in the cigarette tax, which was raised a $1 a pack to balance the last state budget.

"If we can get to place where both Republicans and Democrats can support a 10-cent, 20-cent or 30-cent increase," Cummings said, then some tax hike is still viable, but $1 a pack is just too high. "Politically, it raises problems," he said.

Baldacci proposed the $1 hike to raise $131 million in the next two-year state budget, or about $65 million a year. The governor said he supports the hike not only to fill a budget gap, but to discourage people from smoking. Under the governor's proposal, Maine would have the highest state cigarette tax in the country -- $3 a pack - and the price for brand name cigarettes would be more than $7.

The governor's new spokesman, David Farmer, said it was premature to say the tax hike is dead because it hasn't even had a public hearing yet. If it is rejected, he said, the governor believes it's up to the Legislature to fill the hole.

"Right now we haven't heard any alternative proposals," he said, and the money is needed to keep the state's promise on increased aid to education and fund the Medicaid system. "The Legislature seems to be putting itself in a hole in the budget."

Edmonds agreed it is the Legislature that will have to find alternatives, but she wasn't yet in a position to propose any.

"I think it's ours" to figure out, Edmonds said, but the answers aren't there yet.

Senate Republican leader, Sen. Carol Weston of Waldo, said she was glad to hear the cigarette tax was getting some opposition from Democrats and would like it off the table all together.

The governor promised to take the state from the highest taxed in the country "to somewhere in the middle of the pack," she said, and that will be the measure Republicans use to evaluate all his plans

Any new tax, even a tax on cigarettes, increases the burden if it isn't offset by something else, she said.

Asked what Republicans would cut to balance the budget, Weston said her side needs to know the reality behind Baldacci's numbers.

"Democrats are not supporting the cigarette tax increase and there's a lot of discomfort around the school consolidation piece," Weston said, and both were used to balance the budget.

Weston said the one policy area she knows needs review is the Medicaid budget. "We can't sustain the growth," she said.