WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.  – Hundreds of workers from North Carolina cigarette factories owned by Reynolds American Inc. plan to protest the possibility of higher cigarette taxes.

The Winston-Salem-based company is paying to send busloads of employees to the General Assembly in Raleigh on Tuesday. Spokeswoman Maura Payne said the second-largest U.S. tobacco company is paying its employees as if they were at work.

The company is trying to prevent lawmakers from raising the state’s excise tax on cigarettes to help close a spending gap of more than $4 billion.

Gov. Beverly Perdue proposed increasing the tax by $1 per pack. House and Senate budget plans didn’t include that proposal. Congress this year raised the federal cigarette tax by 62 cents a pack.

The North Carolina Association of Educators will protest paycuts May 16.

The protest begins at noon on the grounds of NCAE Headquarters in Raleigh .  Food, speeches, and music with a concluding 1 p.m. motorcade circling the North Carolina General Assembly and the Governor’s Mansion.

According to a release from the group, 185,000 public school employees are being furloughed while out-of-state residents Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington get free tuition.

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Wake County leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties plan a protest rally at the Cary Towne Center and Triangle Towne Center malls.