With Election Day closing fast, the five-way, multi-issue race for governor lately has been dominated by two candidates and a single topic, with Republican challenger Jim Longley hammering incumbent Angus King over taxes.

It’s good that Longley has focused with such singular purpose upon taxes. Having the fourth-highest state and local tax burden in the nation is bad for business and worse for families. It is probably true, as he contends, that the last Legislature would have delivered more tax relief had his party, the minority, had more control of the budget process. And his impromptu use of a cardboard box to satirize the new $44,000 mahogany podium in the House chamber is both a vivid reminder of how small change adds up and a welcome act of color and spontaneity in an otherwise dreary campaign season.

King responds with some points well worth taking. Taxes have been reduced, including the reviled property tax. He took office faced with stack of IOUs and a depleted bank account. Now the bills are being paid and the account replenished. Fewer people are on the state payroll now than four years ago. Local government has not done enough to cut costs.

The problem with the raging argument, though, is that it does not go far enough. It’s not that Maine taxes are too high; the jobs Maine taxpayers hold aren’t good enough.

According to the Tax Foundation, a well-respected, non-partisan Washington think tank, Maine does in fact have the fourth highest state and local tax burden — 13.3 percent of income. But in actual dollars, not percentage points, it’s $3,174, good for 19th place, within a mere $137 of a tie for 29th. Middling fair.

You need per capita income figures to compute the tax burden and that’s where the trouble starts. Maine’s, according to the foundation, is $23,792. That’s 37th, solidly within a cluster of states that forms the back of the pack, way back. And all of the other also-rans are in the south or the rural west, none in New England. In a fairly high-rent neighborhood, Maine is on the wrong side of the tracks.

To see how tax burden sometimes doesn’t matter, look no farther than Connecticut. Its average state and local bite is $1,800 more than Maine’s. Its per capita income is $16,000 more. Sounds like a reasonable trade-off. In Massachusetts, it’s $800 more in taxes, $11,000 more in pay. You get the picture.

In recent weeks, the gubernatorial debate has been hijacked by the taxation question. If they’re too high they should be reduced. And they probably can be reduced if, for example, the state quells its taste for mahogany furniture. But with two weeks to go, it’s time for the candidates to think — and talk — about the other side of the equation. Voters aren’t just taxpayers. They’re wage earners, too.