Health advocates are decrying proposed funding cuts in Gov. Paul LePage’s two-year budget that would “decimate Maine’s public health system,” including programs aimed at reducing smoking and staffing at the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

LePage’s budget “drastically” reduces funding for the state’s tobacco program and “all but eliminates” the Healthy Maine Partnerships, coalitions that address tobacco and other health problems in the community, the Maine Public Health Association said in a news release late Wednesday.

Although the group is still analyzing the details of the budget proposal, “the Maine Public Health Association and our partners are deeply concerned about the grave consequences proposed cuts will have on the health and safety of Maine children, families and elders,” said Executive Director Tina Pettingill.

Maine’s anti-smoking program — funded by the 1998 landmark tobacco settlement agreement with major cigarette makers — has ranked among the most successful nationally. Maine reduced cigarette smoking rates among high school students by 67 percent from 1997 to 2013, “saving thousands of lives and millions per year from our health care budget,” the release states.

But while Maine outperforms most other states, it has failed to fully invest in helping smokers quit and preventing kids from picking up the habit, a 2014 American Lung Association report found.

“As children grow into adolescents and young adults, they become the main target for the tobacco industry, and these programs immunize them against these efforts during these crucial years,” said Becky Smith, director of government relations for the American Heart Association in Maine.

Maine funds its anti-smoking program, overseen by Maine CDC and the Healthy Maine Partnerships, with the tobacco settlement money and a tax on tobacco products. LePage’s budget redirects $10 million of those funds to support other health initiatives, including maintaining reimbursement rates for primary care providers and better coordinating treatment for patients who sap Medicaid resources because they use many services, according to his office. Those efforts will improve the health of Mainers, LePage said in his budget proposal.

The proposal also would eliminate nearly 40 positions in the Maine CDC, or 11 percent of its workforce, the release states. While the budget doesn’t identify which positions are on the chopping block, the state and deputy state epidemiologist positions remain vacant, as do several other epidemiologist positions and at least a quarter of public health nursing positions, the release states. Epidemiologists are tasked with preventing the spread of infectious diseases, tracking their causes and effect on the population, and responding to outbreaks.

Maine CDC and its partners are critical to responding to public health emergencies, as the state witnessed during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, the association said.

The agency’s public health staffing faced criticism last year during the state’s response to the return of Kaci Hickox, the Maine nurse who defied quarantine after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

“We look forward to working with our legislators to prevent these cuts and keeping Mainers healthy and safe now and into the future,” Pettingill said.