Smokers on Long Island smoldered at the cash register Tuesday as they paid about $7 for a pack of premium cigarettes in the state that now has the country’s highest cigarette taxes.

The average price of each pack statewide, which had been $5.82, rose 21 percent with the $1.25 tax hike. In New York City, which adds its own tax, a pack of Marlboros or Camels costs more than $10 in some stores.

Smokers said they felt singed by the increase, which brings the state tax to $2.75 per pack. That compares to $2.58 in New Jersey, the state with the second-highest tax. At $2, Connecticut ranks fifth, and Pennsylvania’s $1.35 ranks 20th. (South Carolina, the lowest, charges 7 cents.)

Frank Steigerwald, 60, a school custodian who lives in West Sayville, reeled when he paid $19.34 for two boxes of Mavericks and one box of Naturals at Jim’s Smoke Shop in Patchogue. On Monday, those three packs would have cost $14.90. Mavericks, a generic brand, cost $5.35 a pack at Jim’s.

“Slowly, I’m going to have to quit,” Steigerwald said.

If so, he won’t be the only one. Daniel Jacobsen, director of the Center for Tobacco Control of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, said he’s already heard from a South Shore fire department that wants to help its firefighters give up cigarettes.

State officials applauded the tax increase, saying the extra $265 million in the state budget will help cover a shortfall. The American Heart Association predicted the state would save $14 million from reduced heart attacks and strokes.

But store owners predicted that many smokers would rather do business with out-of-state stores, Internet or American Indian shops that don’t charge taxes.At the Shinnecock Nation near Southampton, four stores sell cigarettes within a half-mile of one another. At the westernmost, The Shinnecock Smoke Shop, 21 cars, vans and pickup trucks stopped in to the drive-through and walk-up window during a 45-minute period yesterday morning.

Newports and Camels sell there for $36 and $44 per carton, respectively. Storekeepers would not disclose how yesterday’s sales compared to those before the tax hike.

On Monday, Shah Aziz, who manages an Exxon gas station at 410 Wheeler Rd. in Hauppauge, sold 50 more packs than usual as smokers tried to beat the increase.

“This morning, there was a 25 percent drop because of the tax,” Aziz said yesterday. Many two-pack buyers cut down to one pack, he added.

At a Mobil Station on Sunrise Highway in Islip Terrace, Brian Weschler, 21, looked at the new prices with dismay.

“I think five bucks is it,” said Weschsler, who smokes half a pack daily.

Weschsler said he plans to order free nicotine patches offered by the state so he can quit.