Gov. Angus King is using tobacco settlement money as a rainy day fund to shore up state budgets even as a newly released poll shows three of four Mainers oppose that notion, some health care advocates said Wednesday.

They said the governor went to the tobacco settlement well last year and then has come back to scoop out more money this year from the programs designed to lower health care costs in the future by getting people to live healthier lives.

Together, the two visits to the well would drain about 40 percent out of a Fund for a Healthy Maine.

Now, with a rosier state revenue picture emerging, some state budget items will be restored, and advocates want the Fund for a Healthy Maine restored before any money is put back into the state’s real Rainy Day Fund.

The deep cuts threaten to weaken the fledgling programs created to lead Mainers to healthier, smoke-free lifestyles, said Ed Miller, president of the American Lung Association of Maine. He said the cuts raise questions about whether there is enough money left to make an impact and whether they will undermine the ability of 31 new community health organizations from attracting and keeping talented workers.

“The fund for a healthy Maine never should be used as a rainy day fund,” he said.

Miller’s sentiments are backed up by a poll of 401 Mainers conducted recently by Market Decisions of South Portland for the Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health. The poll found:

. 78 percent oppose using the Fund to balance the state’s budget

. 78 percent would support a Constitutional amendment restricting fund use for health-related purposes with one-quarter of the money dedicated to smoking cessation and prevention measures.

. 69 percent said they would be more willing to vote for a candidate who supports the use of tobacco settlement funds only for health-related programs, even in times of budget shortfalls.

The man who spearheaded the lawsuit against big tobacco companies said in a speech and interview last fall that he is angry that lawmakers from around the country are disregarding the public health potential of the money in favor of plugging Medicaid deficit holes or building new roads.

“I call it moral treason,” said Michael Moore, Mississippi attorney general. “It’s no victory at all if you don’t take the money we got and apply it to the public health and to protect children.”

In an interview Tuesday, Megan D. Hannon, director of Government Relations and Advocacy for the American Cancer Society’s New England Division, echoed Moore’s comments.

“It comes to us for a reason – to settle a lawsuit,” Hannon said. “Had the tobacco settlement not come we’d have the same shortfall.”

Tony Sprague, Gov. King’s spokesman, said the governor had a tough role in balancing priorities and recommending necessary cuts to meet what was first seen as a $248 million shortfall. With items like tax increases and general purpose aid to education off the table it “compresses” areas where one can look to cut, he said.

“It’s hard to isolate one fund without looking at the whole picture,” he said.

As to whether the governor’s priorities in restoring the Fund for a Healthy Maine versus the Rainy Day Fund, Sprague said there is interest in putting some money back in the Rainy Day Fund.

“The Rainy Day Fund is important mainly because it covers all of state government in a time of declining revenues,” he said.

Sprague said the governor had supported the development of the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which set priorities for spending the tobacco money. That plan was acclaimed nationally, he said.

Indeed, Maine’s original plan for the tobacco money drew praise from Moore and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC put Maine at the top of the list in using the funds for health-related uses.

In the original plan, the Legislature set up The Fund for a Healthy Maine with some of the roughly $55 million a year coming to the state from the settlement. Maine’s check will vary but it is guaranteed for 25 years. The money was to be spent to expand existing health care programs and to create new ones to improve public health. Some of the uses included smoking cessation programs, prenatal care, dental and oral health care to low-income people, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and comprehensive school health programs.

To ensure the programs continued even after the funding dried up, the Legislature set up a trust fund fueled by a small percentage of annual settlement income. It contained $11 million last year when the money was taken and the fund abolished, said Judith A. Dorsey, senior policy analyst for the Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health.

The cuts are diverting health care workers attention from their jobs and are making it hard to move forward, Dorsey said.

“This fund is looked at as another Rainy Day Fund,” Dorsey said. “It’s causing havoc for these programs.”