HARRISBURG — Cigarette smokers in Pennsylvania could soon be paying a dime a pack more as part of Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to balance the state budget.

Rendell revealed the idea and other details of his coming budget proposal during a conference call Thursday with about a dozen reporters at medium-sized newspapers around the state. He also has been conducting TV news interviews in advance of Wednesday's budget address.

The current cigarette tax is $1.35, and the additional levy should raise about $50 million a year. The governor said he also favors $50 million in taxes on smokeless tobacco and cigars, which are not currently taxed.

Rendell plans to seek $150 million a year in new taxes on the extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale rock formation.

He will again push for a plan, known as the "pharmacy carve-out," to have the state reap savings in its various health care programs by directly purchasing pharmaceuticals from drug companies. The idea has previously stalled in the Legislature.

And he told the reporters the General Assembly should dedicate its entire $200 million surplus to the budget. That was a change from last week, when Rendell said the figure should be $175 million.

He noted the state faces an increasing unemployment rate and has a growing waiting list for subsidized adult health insurance.