BY THE NUMBERS

Massachusetts voters will confront cigarette and tobacco taxes, as well as tough new packaging requirements, when voting on four state ballot questions today.

Questions One proposes a tax on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products, with proceeds going to a newly created Health Protection Fund.

Under the proposed law, revenues placed in the new fund would be allotted to educational and social programs, such as school health education and community health center prenatal programs.

The tax increase would be 25 cents for a regular pack of 20 cigarettes and 25 percent of the wholesale price of smokeless tobacco products.

Supporters say the tax will cut down on the commonwealth's smoking rate, save lives, discourage smoking and educate children of its dangers. Opponents, however, call the tax another burden on working families, and say it will only force business across state borders.

Question Two would require banks, insurance companies and publicly-traded corporations to publicly disclose all income and state tax payments starting in 1993.

But the measure appears to be largely moot even before the referendum goes to Massachusetts citizens next week.

Activists on both sides of the question reached a compromise last month which, through legislation to be passed early next year, will supersede the initiative regardless of the election's outcome.

The compromise legislation would also require disclosure, but would publish the results only in aggregate from, not by individual company. It would also create a task force to study all Massachusetts' taxes on business, with a report to be issued by May 31, 1993 proposing changes to the corporate tax system.

Question Three would, if passed, require all packaging used in the state after 1996 to be reduced in size, reusable or made of materials that have been or could be recycled.

Drawing the support of Gov. William F. Weld '66 and some environmental groups, the law would place strict requirements on the size, composition and reusability of packaging shipped out of Massachusetts.

Supporters say the initiative forces businesses to be enviornmentally conscious and would conserve resources, increase recycling levels and jobs and reduce garbage disposal costs.

But opponents say the law will be costly and would not mandate recycling programs or solve solid waste problems.

Question Four proposes a tax on proposes a tax on oils and hazardous materials. The revenue, which supporters say will raise up to $35 million, will be placed into the state Environmental Challenge Fund and be used to clean up Hazardous waste sites.

Opponents charge that the pollution tax will simply raise prices on home heating oil for consumers without guaranteeing that the tax money is used to clean up waste sites.