The state House has approved increasing the cigarette tax and maintained a Senate plan to use the money to provide health care for low-income restidents.

The Senate approved the 50-cent per-pack increase earlier this month, estimated to bring in $159 million in additional taxes. The only change made in the House was setting aside $1 million for agriculture.

The state's per-pack tax was last increased 31 years ago. It is now the nation's lowest at 7 cents a pack. New Jersey's is the highest at $2.58 per pack.

Last year, the House approved a 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax increase in exchange for eliminating the sales tax on groceries. But legislators passed a budget that cut the grocery tax without raising the cigarette tax.