Gov. John Baldacci has assembled a thoughtful, provocative, complex package of tax cuts, tax shifts, incentives and spending caps designed to strengthen Maine’s creaking tax system and thwart ballot initiatives in June and November. Whether the plan he announced Wednesday would be effective will be seen in the coming weeks of analysis, but he needed to offer something substantial and he has.

The plan immediately increases General Purpose Aid to Education by about 3 percent, raises the state share of K-12 education funding to 55 percent of the total by 2010, caps the amount that municipalities must spend on education at 9 mills and targets added property tax relief to lower- and middle-class residents. It attempts to save money by setting tougher standards for special education and school transportation funding and caps municipal and county spending at 4.5 percent annually. It includes the governor’s plan to drop the personal property tax on business equipment. Finally, it asks schools to save money through greater cooperation.

This is a large agenda and a difficult one to characterize. Unlike the 1 percent tax-cap initiative, which voters will see in November, it doesn’t pretend that a complicated problem can be solved simply; it doesn’t suggest that Augusta will just find added money to send to communities. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t give residents a central idea around which to rally, and it will be up to the governor to turn the many charts and graphs of his plan into a compelling picture of where he intends to lead Maine.

For instance, the governor will have to show that his phased-in state increase in education makes more sense than an immediate boost to 55 percent, and he will need to demonstrate to many concerned parents that his special-education cuts are based on sound policy and not just a means to save money. Towns, too, will have to be convinced that the spending caps in this plan will be matched with guaranteed added aid from the state. It is telling that Republicans were not brought in earlier on this package and that the governor’s initiative rival, the Maine Municipal Association, has not announced its support.

The governor’s plan now joins many others in the Legislature, where it is likely to be modified as lawmakers try to put together a single package. This will be hard but essential work. Maine badly needs a plan to lower its overall tax burden and it needs a proposal to counter inadequate but tempting ballot initiatives. The governor yesterday may have provided Maine with both.