SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois Senate committee voted Wednesday to more than double the state’s cigarette tax, adding $1 a pack with an eye toward raising money for the state’s crushing health care costs while giving smokers one more reason to quit.

By one estimate, the proposed total state tax of $1.98 — combined with existing local taxes and a pending federal tobacco tax hike — would usher in $10-per-pack cigarettes in Chicago.

“Increasing the price of cigarettes is the single most effective way of reducing smoking,” Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association told lawmakers. That, plus the estimated $278 million in new annual state revenue from the tax hike — to be earmarked for state health care costs — is “a win, win, win for Illinois,” she argued.

But opponents warned Illinois will lose customers and sales taxes to neighboring states if it adopts what would be one of the higher cigarette taxes in the nation — especially next to Missouri’s tax of 17 cents, which is the second-lowest.

“The great state of Missouri is over there laughing their fannies off at us,” Harry Kelley, a lobbyist for tobacco distributors, told members of the Illinois Senate Executive committee before the vote.

Kelley said that during a recent stop at a St. Louis tobacco store near the state border, he counted 57 cars in the parking lot, “and 49 of those were from Illinois.”

The committee approved the measure 7-5, mostly along party lines. Democrats argued that the health effects and added income would be a double benefit to the cash-strapped state — which is facing a potential $9 billion budget deficit next year, much of it tied to rising health care costs.

Republicans countered that smokers crossing into neighboring states would buy their gasoline and groceries while there, costing Illinois additional losses in sales tax.

The measure now moves to the full Senate. If it ultimately becomes law, it will be the second big hit that tobacco has taken lately in Illinois. Last year, the state banned smoking in all indoor public venues, including bars and casinos.

The cigarette tax bill is SB44.