Cigarette lobbyists on both sides, who aren't allowed to talk to reporters due to company privacy rules, have told some lawmakers that Big Tobacco is ready to strike a deal.

''The word is going around that Dosal is a target over the tax issue,'' said Hialeah Republican Sen. Rudy Garcia. He opposes both a new cigarette tax and a fee because he fears it could put Dosal out of business. The firm employs about 150 people who live in and around his district.

The last time the fee issue arose was in 2004 at the behest of another settlement company, Liggett Group. Garcia supported the bill in the Senate, where it passed 28-8. But the bill died in the more anti-tax, anti-fee House.

Any tax or fee bill will have a harder time in the House this year as well. Gov. Charlie Crist is cool to a cigarette tax increase.

Since the 2004 vote, Garcia said, he has learned more about Dosal and its importance to the community. The firm was established in 1962 after the Dosal family fled Cuba, a story that has special relevance to Miami-Dade's 14 Hispanic lawmakers.

But other Republicans and Democrats say the state's overriding focus has to be on finding more money. As part of that, smokers should pay up.

''I don't really care if it's fair,'' said Bradenton Republican Sen. Mike Bennett. ``The cost of healthcare isn't fair. The budget deficit isn't fair.''

Complicating the matter: A coalition of health advocates have floated a proposal to direct portions of the potential $1 billion in new tax money to their pet projects. Yet too many competing voices could cause support for the tax law to collapse.

The advocates also want cigarettes to cost as much as possible to cut down on smoking rates. Reducing smoking too much, however, reduces tax collections.

Brenda Olsen, vice president of the American Lung Association of Florida, said the state will save money on health costs if fewer people smoke. She cited studies showing that for every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, youth and adult smoking declines 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively.

Olsen fretted that the tussle between Dosal and the other tobacco companies is a distraction from the more important effort to get tobacco companies to pay their fair share of health costs: ``It is infighting and the tobacco industry has a history of creating smoke screens.''

In the current financial crisis, however, money is a top concern.

The Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund, an annuity established with settlement money, has lost nearly half its $2.1 billion worth in the bad economy. Lawmakers want to raid it to plug the budget hole. Advocates want to replenish it with cigarette money.

Tobacco tax money is forecast to decline 1 percent next year to $269.1 million. Tobacco settlement fees are also expected to decrease to $389.9 million, $8 million less than last year.

The fee money is declining because state collections are based on the big companies' market share, which has declined 16 percent since 1997, when Dosal made less than 1 percent of the state's cigarettes.

Dosal's 14 percent market share accounts for 76 percent of the discount cigarettes sold in Florida.

Greenacres Democrat Sen. Dave Aronberg, whose political committee received $12,500 - the most to any Democrat - in the past year from Dosal, said he's against higher taxes in general and specifically opposes the settlement-fee issue.

''This isn't a debate about taxes or healthcare, really,'' he said. ``This is a fight about market share.''

Staff writers Mary Ellen Klas, Jennifer Liberto and Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Marc Caputo can be reached at mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com.

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