Legislators continue anguishing over a looming spike in car-tag prices taxes, but they’re still hoping to avert that by increasing the tax on cigarettes, even though the bill for that died last week.

The state’s car tax reduction fund has run dry and needs more money because of a slump in auto sales.

The car tag fund — which gets revenues from the state tax on auto sales — enables local governments to provide car owners a discount set in law on their automobile tags. Unless legislative changes are made, counties won’t get reimbursed or car owners could see their taxes double.

“We’ve gotten calls from supervisors and tax collectors in great stress about car tags,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who presides over the Senate.

Legislators have been planning to use $23 million for the car tag fund from new revenue gained by hiking cigarette taxes, but they can’t agree on how much to raise the state’s 18-cent-a-pack rate.

Legislative negotiators couldn’t reach a compromise last Wednesday and missed a self-imposed deadline to have an agreement ready for the House and Senate to vote on.

Legislators will try to bring new life to the bill increasing the cigarette tax and avoid the rise in car tag prices.

“We’re not giving up. As long as the session is open, we’re not giving up,” said House Majority Leader Tyrone Ellis, D-Starkville.

It won’t be easy to revive the legislation. It requires a 67 percent majority approval in the House and Senate.

“If something falls from heaven and sheds its grace with blessings of hope and reasoning, we might be able to do something (this week),” Ellis said.

Resolutions sponsored by 75 members of the 122-seat House of Representatives and 17 members of the 52-seat Senate have been filed to suspend the Legislature’s deadline rules. They might come up for a vote today.

While legislators expressed hope to bring the tax bill back, it could be a waste of time to continue negotiating if the House and Senate remain deadlocked.

“If we’re at an impasse with the House, I’d prefer not to do that (revive the cigarette tax bill),” Bryant said.

The Mississippi Legislature is trying to wind down its work on all bills not tied to the state budget and recess its annual session Tuesday. Lawmakers have set a May 4 return date to take up the budget, but that’s subject to change.

Senate leaders last week offered to set the cigarette tax at 60 cents a pack, but negotiators wouldn’t go higher. The Senate in January passed a 49-cent tax. The House’s final offer last week was 80 cents — down from the $1 in its original bill.

“The House receded from $1, but we can’t just run over and play dead,” Ellis said.

Senate leaders said they’re amazed House negotiators walked away from the negotiating table to leave more than $90 million in potential revenues for the car tag reduction fund and other budget needs.

“If I was a House member, I would declare victory with $94 million,” Bryant said of the Senate’s 60-cent tax proposition. “A 250 percent increase is enough for anyone.”

Bryant pointed to “this remarkable point in time when the governor says I will sign the bill if it’s reasonable — and the House conferees say ‘no unless it’s the amount we want.’”

The Mississippi House and Senate agreed in 2006 to raise the tax to $1, but Gov. Haley Barbour vetoed it. The Republican governor says he now supports raising it to 42 cents.

However, the Democratic-controlled House won’t likely accept “a meager hike” that falls short of what’s needed to curb smoking and generate enough revenue, said House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Rienzi.

House negotiators declared an impasse last week after they reduced the House’s original $1 rate by 20 cents and the Senate agreed to increase its earlier 49-cent proposal by just 11 cents.

“If the Senate didn’t budge off 60 cents, what else could we do?” Ellis said.

Bryant said he doesn’t want the Senate to go higher than what Barbour will accept or above the tax rates in surrounding states. It’s 42 cents in Alabama, 62 cents in Tennessee, $1.15 in Arkansas and 36 cents in Louisiana.

The average rate for all 50 states is $1.21, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids. Mississippi’s 18-cent tax is the third lowest and hasn’t been increased since 1985. The need to generate revenue for the car tax reduction fund is the only reason some legislators support the cigarette-tax increase.

“The tag reduction is the ace in the Senate,” said Senate Finance Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, who manages tax bills in the Senate. “If you take the car-tag (language) out, I probably couldn’t pass 49 cents.”

However, Kirby indicated Friday the Senate might be willing to go beyond the 60-cent rate as he tries to reach a compromise with the House on generating the necessary revenues.

Some legislators say the car tag fund could be replenished with cash stashed in Mississippi’s rainy day fund, but Senate leaders said they won’t agree to that. While that fund has about $360 million, senators said they’ll resist the temptation to drain it too quickly.

The federal cigarette tax is increasing Wednesday from 39 cents a pack to $1.01. Increasing the state tax beyond 60 cents could be too much of a burden on smokers if they must pay nearly $2 more per pack in taxes. Kirby said.

The average price of cigarettes in Mississippi now is about $3.55 a pack, according to Communities for a Clean Bill of Health, a coalition of organizations pushing for the state cigarette tax going up to $1.

The Senate voted 42-7 for its 49-cent increase in January, and the House passed its $1 cigarette tax bill with an 81-39 vote, but that’s one short of the 82-vote requirement for reviving the bill.