CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Lighting a cigarette, shooting a moose and registering a car could help New Hampshire pay its bills under the spending plan Gov. John Lynch presented lawmakers Thursday.

Lynch proposes raising the state’s tax on smokes 28 cents per pack – the same amount he won from lawmakers two years ago. That would hike the rate from 80 cents to $1.08 per pack, still lower than surrounding states.

House Ways and Means Chairwoman Susan Almy wants to go even higher. She’s got a bill in to raise the tax 50 cents per pack.

Vermont’s tax is $1.79; Maine’s tax is $2; Massachusetts and Connecticut assess $1.51 per pack; and Rhode Island’s tax is $2.46. Unlike New Hampshire, they also tack on sales taxes.

Lynch also hopes to shore up the Fish and Game Department budget by auctioning 50 moose hunting permits each year.

And, drivers would have to pay another $6 to register their car each year.

Lynch also proposed an interim school aid plan that would create new winners and losers.

Lynch wants to suspend the aid distribution law and give towns the aid they got this year each of the next two years – with a 5 percent increase in the first year. Towns whose aid was dropping under the current system fare better under his approach, while those counting on big increases would not get them.

“The level funding with a 5 percent increase is going to be a tough sell,” said Senate Finance Chairman Lou D’Allesandro.

Lynch’s budget would increase total spending about 9 percent to $10.2 billion. Of that, $3.2 billion in spending is paid with general tax revenues. That is a 15 percent increase.

The total does not include school aid. Lynch’s plan calls for increasing aid $48 million instead of the $109 million current law requires. He also estimates the school aid fund would have a $100 million surplus at the end of the two years.

Lynch said he soon will offer a constitutional amendment to allow the state to limit aid to poorer towns.

“I do not believe we should put in place a new school funding formula until we have defined an adequate education and passed this constitutional amendment,” he said. “Nor do I believe we should simply go forward with the current law.”

Lynch’s mention of a constitutional amendment was met with mild applause. The rest of his school aid plan was met with silence.

House Finance Chairwoman Marjorie Smith noted that Lynch’s school aid amounts count on lawmakers doing something they have not done in the past – adopt a constitutional amendment on school funding.

“He expects that amendment to pass. The history we have is the House has not been particularly supportive of that approach,” said Smith, D-Durham. “But, there is a new House.”

Lynch again called on lawmakers to increase the school dropout age to 18 and said his budget would spend more than $54 million in state and federal funding on alternative programs to keep students in school. For example, he included more money for tutoring and one-on-one assistance for at-risk students.

He promised to crack down on agencies drawing on money intended for highways for other uses. The result has been delays in road and bridge projects that will mean higher costs when the state can afford to do them, he said.

“State agencies must stop using the highway fund like an ATM,” he said.

Nevertheless, Lynch said his budget will allow the state to move forward on the expansion of Interstate 93 and other, high priority projects.

He said he included funding in his capital budget to nearly double – up to 57 – the number of bridges needing critical repairs.

Lynch also included $1 million in the capital budget toward the return of rail service to southern New Hampshire.

Lynch did not give the Fish and Game Department the $3.2 million in additional funding it claimed it needed to avoid layoffs. Instead, he moved responsibility for the agency’s dams to the Department of Environmental Services. The budget does not include any layoffs, he said.

The Land and Community Heritage Investment Program would get $12 million – the amount it sought. The money is used to preserve land and historic places.

Lynch also includes $6 million in his capital budget for repairs and renovations at state parks – the first systemwide such improvements since 1963.

Lynch wants a master plan developed for the state prison system, but in the meantime included $10 million to begin work expanding the prison in Berlin.