SALEM - Legal challenges are delaying the start of a campaign to place a proposed cigarette tax increase before Oregon voters in November.

The initiative, filed by four lawmakers after the 2005 Legislature refused to consider a cigarette tax hike, would boost the state tax by 60 cents a pack, generating more than $140 million to provide health insurance for all Oregon children.

The proposed increase is opposed by tobacco industry interests who say it's not fair to saddle smokers alone with extra costs of expanding state-subsidized health care programs.

Portland lobbyist Jim Gardner, who represents tobacco giant Philip Morris USA, has filed legal challenges to the wording of the ballot titles for two nearly identical cigarette tax initiatives filed by the lawmakers.

Although the challenges are largely technical in nature, they will prevent backers from starting to gather petition signatures until the courts have given a final approval to ballot title language.

One of the lawmakers pushing for the cigarette tax hike, Democratic Sen. Alan Bates, said he hopes that will come soon, given that backers will have only until the state's July 7 deadline to round up at least 75,630 valid signatures.

“We still have a fighting chance,” said Bates, who's an Ashland physician. “But every day we lose, our chances of getting the signatures become smaller.”

Oregon's cigarette tax would go from $1.18 to $1.78 per pack under the plan, which is co-sponsored by Bates, Sen. Ben Westlund, I-Bend, and state Reps. Billy Dalto, R-Salem, and Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland.

Bill Phelps of Philip Morris USA, the Richmond, Va.-based tobacco company, called the proposed Oregon increase “excessive.”

“It is unfair to adults who smoke,” Phelps said Wednesday. “Tobacco products are already heavily taxed in the United States.”

Bates said, however, he thinks Oregon voters would approve the tax hike because it would not only discourage youths from smoking by boosting the price of cigarettes but also raise millions of dollars to provide for expanded health insurance.

“I see patients every day” suffering from the effects of smoking, Bates said. “If you raise the cigarette tax, less kids will get started smoking. It's a no-brainer.”

Maribeth Healey of Oregonians for Health Security, an activist group, said supporters of the cigarette tax hike believe they will have enough time to gather petition signatures if they can get an approved ballot title by the end of April.

Healey also said Oregon voters have shown a willingness in the past to support cigarette tax increases.

“It's a very popular tax,” she said. “Across the country, tobacco taxes seem to be one tax that voters will approve.”