Only government and union representatives will take a seat at the table when labor talks resume as scheduled today, but every resident of the state has a stake in the outcome of those talks.

That's because the job at hand is to come to terms with an expanding gap in government revenues, a gap that will only grow larger and do more damage to the state's overall economy unless the negotiators truly grapple with the hard facts.

Those facts: The budget deficit now stands at about $786 million. Lawmakers already whittled the budget, based on revenue projections that have continued to drift downward since then.

Legislators steered clear of cutting into labor expenditures because of pending union talks — but that task can be postponed no longer. Labor represents 70 percent of the state budget, so that's where the cuts have to come now.

The governor has now issued the first round of layoff notices. Layoffs should be avoided, but the notification was a necessary step to enable them as a last-ditch option.

The reality here is that there is no painless fix. Any rational solution will have to involve some combination of furloughs and pay and benefit cuts.

Raising the excise tax is a bad move in a shrinking economy and from a purely practical standpoint, some now say, it may not offer a quick escape hatch, anyway. If such a tax hike were approved in special session, the governor would surely veto it; some lawmakers question whether the constitution would allow overriding legislation passed in special session.

It's time to end the stalemate. Everyone must now concede that the focus needs to be on achieving labor savings, and that any further cat-and-mouse games will only make those cuts more painful.

The longer that process takes, the deeper the budget hole and the more dire the cutbacks become.

State employees who want to secure the best contract possible need to communicate their priorities to their union executives.

And state officials and union leaders alike need to recognize the most critical fact of all: This crisis is real.

Old ways of triangulating toward a solution, old-style stalling tactics and arguments are counterproductive and damaging. Everyone — taxpayers and the workers whose services they need and whose salaries they pay — deserves an end to this drama, now.