Gov. Paul LePage refused to submit a budget this session, leaving legislators to wrestle with big-ticket spending bills without a clear plan. The state budget process is vital to delivering good policy. Without it, legislators are forced to make expensive decisions about spending Maine taxpayers’ money out of context with the greater needs and priorities of this state.

The Legislature is currently separately considering a $42 million tax conformity package, $23 million needed to fund schools, a $52 million-a-year proposal to repeal the itemized deductions cap, and how to pay for each. Not only must legislators consider these policies in isolation from one another, they are considering them separate from last year’s bipartisan budget agreement.

The itemized deduction cap made permanent in last year’s budget agreement came along with sweeping changes to Maine’s personal income tax system that make Maine’s tax code fairer for working families. The changes include an expansion of the tax brackets and lowering of the top tax rate.

Previously, the state taxed adjusted annual income above $21,050 for single filers at 7.95 percent. The new top rate of 7.15 percent will apply to adjusted income above $50,000 starting in tax year 2017. Other changes include a near doubling of the standard deduction from $6,300 to $11,600 for single Mainers and from $12,600 to $23,200 for married Mainers. To maintain balance, the budget agreement also caps itemized deductions at $28,550 and phases out the value of all deductions for wealthier filers.

Analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows how these changes will work together to lower taxes for most Mainers:

• More Mainers will claim the higher standard deduction. The new tax changes will increase the percent of Mainers who claim the standard deduction from about 70 to 89 percent.

• Most of the 11 percent who still itemize their deduction in 2016, will be taxed at a lower rate, and will pay less income tax because of the lowered top tax rate.

• Approximately 71 percent of the Mainers whose deductions the cap will limit still will pay lower income tax.

Proponents of LD 1519, the bill to repeal the itemized deductions cap, claim that the cap will discourage homeownership and reduce charitable giving. These arguments fail to consider the combined effect of all the changes in the tax plan.

Only 31 percent of Maine homeowners claimed the state mortgage interest deduction in 2013 and fewer still will claim it once the nearly doubled standard deduction takes effect in tax year 2016. The vast majority of low- and middle-income homeowners, most of whom already choose the standard deduction over itemizing their mortgage interest, will receive a greater tax benefit from choosing the increased standard deduction and will no longer claim the mortgage interest deduction.

Opponents similarly overstate concerns about the itemized deduction cap’s impact on charitable contributions. Consider the recent $10 million gift Bates College received from a family in Massachusetts, a state that offers no benefit for itemized deductions. That example highlights two important points.

First, where charitable giving is concerned, federal treatment of deductions provide more powerful incentives. Federal tax rates are much higher than at the state level.

And second, Mainers (and those from away) who generously give millions of dollars annually to a wide range of Maine nonprofit organizations do so primarily because they strongly support their important work, such as feeding the hungry, protecting our environment, providing access to health care and filling holes in our social safety net. That support won’t go away and, for many Mainers, may actually rise as the 2015 budget agreement increases after-tax income for more than eight out of 10 Mainers.

Meanwhile, rolling back the cap will give an even bigger tax cut to wealthy Mainers, most of whom will already pay less income tax under last year’s tax changes. In fact, over half the benefits from repealing the deduction cap will go to the top 1 percent of Mainers with income greater than $370,000.

LD 1519 is ultimately a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It will not encourage homeownership and may actually undermine it if lawmakers cut state aid for schools and property tax relief to pay for it. It will not increase charitable giving and ultimately represents a step backward for many of the causes Maine nonprofits and their donors support.

Finally, the primary beneficiaries will be Maine’s wealthiest taxpayers, most of whom will already pay lower taxes under the new tax code.

Lawmakers should reject LD 1519, maintain state funding for Maine families and Maine communities and promote tax fairness for all Maine people.

Garrett Martin is the executive director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.