And the hard choice for public employees and their unions this year is the one that the staff at two homeless organizations - the Union Rescue Mission downtown and Hope Gardens in Sylmar - made recently. They chose to take pay cuts or give up some retirement benefits rather than cutting services to the poor people they serve.

To be sure, it was a hard decision. Social service workers aren't Wall Street bankers; it's modestly paid work, and giving up a 401(k) match from an employer amounts to a serious financial impact.

But it was the right decision. They were faced with a very real dilemma: voluntarily cut back or see people in real need suffer.

That choice is one more and more public employees are going to have to face this year in California as the local and state governing agencies try to deal huge budget deficits. Will they give up some of their hard-won benefits to keep the city of Los Angeles out of bankruptcy ore reduce their pay to keep enough sheriff's deputies and police officers on the streets and to keep the state from emptying prisons?

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made "shared sacrifice" his mantra two years ago when he first started grappling with a $300 million structural deficit for the city. Other California politicians embraced the concept, promising they, too, would see their agencies and its employees cut back. It's a sensible sentiment but has yet to be fully employed at the city or county level.

Instead, the mayor and City Council jacked up every fee and tax they could dream up. That still hasn't been enough, and the city is starting the annual budgeting process a half a billion dollars in the hole.

The state is dealing with a $20 billion shortfall it will pass on to the agencies that rely on it for funding, including a host of welfare services for kids and seniors and school districts. Los Angeles County alone stands to lose up to $3billion.

The cuts can't come on the backs of the poor. We all must share the sacrifice.

California and Los Angeles city and county workers have the most generous public sector work force compensation in the nation, Cadillac benefits, and job security that is the envy of private sector workers.

Maintaining the health of a society benefits us all, while encouraging a growing disparity of wages between public employees and the private workers who pay them, is a recipe for disfunction and discontent.

In order to save the system, public employees must give back this year. As budget season gets under way, lawmakers are once again renewing their cry for a shared sacrifice. This year, it has to be more than an empty appeal. At City Hall, elected officials can do this by putting a proposed initiative on the June ballot to reduce pension benefits for new employees. And elected officials in the county and the state Legislature can lead the way, making the first sacrifice themselves.