You’d rather eat paint than talk about tax policy. But because the stakes are so high — and because the Maine Legislature has put together a far-reaching, comprehensive, bipartisan — and, yes, bold — tax reform plan, now would be a good time to pay attention.

Current budget proposals threaten to brutalize Maine’s most vulnerable, with cuts to programs and services, major increases in property taxes, cuts to revenue sharing for municipalities and a historic cost shift from the state to local schools for pension and other mandated costs. The loudest voices against the LePage administration’s budget proposal come from local officials across the state, whether they’re Democrat or Republican. Gov. LePage himself has said he hates his plan.

Enough cutting. Something must be done in a systematic way to stop the annual race to the bottom that occurs when Maine attempts to balance its budgets with shrinking revenues and ever-increasing expenses. So, what the so-called “Gang of 11” proposes is bold and far-reaching: a package of pro-growth tax cuts Republicans should love, shifts to nonresidental payers to fund property tax reform as espoused by Democrats, and a path to annual stability that should make for fewer surprises for budgeting at every level of government. The proposal cuts income taxes from 8 percent to 4 percent — a deeper cut than even the GOP-backed 4.95 percent cut enacted after the 2010 session — and lowers the corporate income tax to 3.5 percent on income up to $50,000; and 7.5 percent above that sum.

The corporate income tax currently is 3.5 percent for income up to $25,000, graduated up to 8.93 percent for income in excess of $250,000.

The plan also repeals the estate tax entirely.

Wider relief comes as the plan increases by 500 percent the annual allowable homestead exemption from property taxes. What is now capped at the first $10,000 in taxable value would now be sheltered up to the first $50,000. That’s serious money in the pockets of average Mainers.

To pay for it, the bill raises an array of taxes, some of which are concerning.

The sales tax would rise from 5 percent to 6 percent and be extended to a very wide range of products and services. Some of this money would be rebated to retailers, and individual filers can file for a sales tax credit of up to $2,000 to help offset having to pay more at the checkout for groceries, heating oil and baby food.

Tobacco taxes would rise by a whopping 75 percent, from $2 to $3.50.

Meals and lodging taxes would rise from 7 percent to 8 percent, with some of those funds withheld for tourism promotion (not that anyone plans a Maine vacation based on taxes, but a good idea, anyway).

Taxes on alcohol would double; from 60 cents to $1.20 per gallon for wine, and 35 cents to 70 cents for liquor and hard cider.

Car rentals, now taxed at 10 percent, would be taxed at 15 percent.

Taxes on residential property sales would go up based on the sales price, starting at 0.6 percent for a home sold at $250,000 or less up to 1.5 percent for homes sold for moe than $1 million.

Yes, the plan raises revenue — but only the harshest conservatives think that’s a bad idea in these cuthappy times … people like Grover Norquist, the archconservative activist and leader of Americans for Tax Reform who circulated a pledge signed by thousands of local lawmakers that they would never vote for any tax increase of any kind, ever.

Norquist is known for saying he would like to shrink government to where it can be “drowned in a bath tub.” Someone should tell him that one of the plan’s biggest backers is Dennis Keschl, a Belgrade Republican who signed his pledge, calling it “pro-growth tax reform” in a recent editorial board meeting at the State House.

Yes, some of the tax increases are concerning. We’ve never really understood the cigarette tax, the no-brainer well of revenue they keep tapping, which purports to stop people from smoking even as it relies on their continued addiction. And the tax on sales of homes under $250,000 should be shelved, especially when so many homeowners of modest means may still be underwater with their mortgages and, if they are not, have home equity as one of the few sources of equity left in their portfolios.

Eliminating income tax exemptions such as for mortgage interest, taxes paid, out-of-pocket medical and contributions to college savings plans also seems regressive and inharmonious with federal filings.

With some tweaking, this plan offers a serious jolt to Maine’s ailing economy.

It offers businesses new competitive advantages to lure workers via relaxed corporate and income tax rates. It bumps disposable income by eliminating the estate tax. It shifts tax payments to second-homers and tourists who enjoy Maine without currently paying the full price for it, in the form of higher rental car and hotel fees and continued property tax payments on their second homes that don’t qualify for the fatter homestead exemption.

And the most important piece: It restores revenue sharing for municipalities and delovers property tax relief for homeowners—- two legs of a budget stool the LePage budget kicked out from under those Mainers who are being taxed out of homes they’ve lived in for generations.

We will see the self-interested gun for it. The food and beverage industry, which almost singlehandedly shot down a tax reform law at referendum in 2009, will let you know how much more you will be paying for necessities. Hoteliers will tell you how uncompetitive a Maine vacation will become. Realtors will describe how it will put a brake on the still fragile housing recovery.

But none of that occurs if people have more money to spend, and if they take full advantage of tax relief offers attached to the bill.

Shrinking the income and property tax while increasing taxes on out-of-staters and general consumption — rebating the latter with a healthy sales tax credit — is the right road for tax reform. Local legislators should join the five Democrats, five Republicans and one independent on a bandwagon that may come along only once in a lifetime.