AUGUSTA — A Republican lawmaker criticized Gov. Paul LePage on Wednesday for backtracking on funding Maine’s first cold case homicide squad.

Rep. Karl Ward, R-Dedham, called the Republican governor to task for not including funding for the three-member squad in LePage’s proposed budget. Instead, LePage’s budget calls for hiring 11 new drug enforcement officers and prosecutors to address what LePage’s spokeswoman called Maine’s “severe drug epidemic.”

In an April 2014 letter to Maine’s Congressional delegation seeking federal funding for the cold case squad, LePage accused state legislators of pulling “a trick” by passing a law creating the squad and then not backing it enough to fund it. LePage said he supported funding the squad, charged with investigating the state’s approximately 120 unsolved cold case homicides.

“It appears as though maybe the shoe is on the other foot,” Ward said of the contrast between the letter and LePage’s present stance. “What has changed within the last year? If the Legislature is willing to fund it, what will the governor do?”

Ward has submitted a bill seeking funding for the squad. Two similar bills are under review with the state revisor’s office that will likely be combined and heard later in the session.

“I want to put this out to people who are concerned and see whether [LePage] is willing to take another look at this and whether this can get back onto his radar screen,” Ward said. “We are going to make a compelling argument about this and tell them that this is not a high enough priority.”

LePage administration spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett said that the governor supports both the squad and his anti-drug initiative, but LePage would fund the MDEA initiative first.

“There is no doubt that we have a pile of cases [unsolved homicides] that need attention, but we also have a severe drug epidemic in our state,” Bennett said Wednesday.

In the April 2014 letter, LePage predicted what eventually occurred. He said that the Legislature “will likely say that the homicide squad is a good idea, but it is not enough of a priority that it deserves to get funded.”

“It is a trick they often use,” LePage said in the letter. “It is however one that I cannot tolerate. Maine families deserve better.”

The cold case squad, Ward said, has been on a funding merry-go-round since it passed the Legislature last year and LePage signed the bill creating it into law. It was estimated the squad would cost $500,000 to start up and then $424,000 in second-year funding, officials said. A 1999 law creating a squad in the state police was passed but never funded, and Maine did not qualify for the federal grant officials sought.

“Everybody says they support it, but no one appears to want to fund it,” Ward said.

Bennett said that LePage’s interest in the MDEA initiative predates the cold case bill. She blamed the Legislature for refusing to fund the anti-drug proposal and challenged lawmakers to come up with a way to fund both ideas.

“If [LePage’s requested drug fighters] were funded last legislative session then we would have the ability to move forward with the cold case squad, but instead of the Legislature having that kind of foresight, we are back at square one,” Bennett said.

“The Legislature has a say in the budget, and they rejected the governor last time around,” she added. “We can all sit around the table and complain, but somebody needs to bring us a solution. Just to complain and say we need to do this doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

LePage’s budget proposes funding seven new MDEA agents and four new assistant attorney general positions to focus exclusively on drug crime. It also seeks 22 additional assistant district attorney positions and four new district court judges. Funding for the initiative is approximately $8 million, according to his budget summary. The cold case initiative would create two detectives positions and a part-time evidence tech position.

“I am not convinced that this is an either-or proposition. Let’s find a way to [fund both initiatives],” Ward said.

He also hoped that the cold case proposal would not be caught up in the friction between LePage and Attorney General Janet Mills. LePage is seeking a state Supreme Judicial Court opinion on Mills’ refusal to represent him in court on two issues. Legislative Republicans and Democrats seem to support the cold case squad, Ward said.

“If that is going to be the issue, we need to put past disagreements aside and simply look at this on its merits,” Ward said. “Isn’t this what Maine people want us to do?”