Note: This story has been updated to include the Dallas CFO's estimate for higher total contributions.

As the Dallas Police and Fire Pension lurches toward a fix in Austin, who's really saving it? Not you and me.

Public safety workers would shoulder most of the burden under the plan working through the Legislature —— despite Mayor Mike Rawlings' earlier complaints about "a taxpayer bailout."

With deep cuts in benefits, higher contributions from pay and potential clawbacks, Dallas police and firefighters would cover about 75 percent of the costs of the pension rescue.

That's a stunning share, even if the split may seem justified given the fund's history of mismanagement and deceit.

It’s important to recognize the level of shared sacrifice in Dallas. Too often, police and firefighters have been criticized for the misdeeds of pension leaders. They’re victims in this, too, and must pay a steep price to start setting things right.

It’s also likely that the pension fix will not be the last for the Dallas fund. So if city leaders and employees must revisit the issue, everyone should recall how much the police and fire gave in this round. Next time, taxpayers may have to pony up more.

Before then, there's also work to do to restore the trust between first-responders and the mayor and others who supported the pension overhaul. Police and firefighters deserve respect, not just for the jobs they do, but for agreeing to carry the big load in the rescue.

In other locales, public workers strongly resisted pension changes. Memphis had a case of "blue flu" in 2014, when half the police who walk the streets and patrol neighborhoods called in sick to protest, according to reports.

Over 250 police and firefighters quit after Memphis ended its traditional pension. In a push to restore benefits this year, the police association rented a billboard.

"Welcome to Memphis: 228 homicides in 2016," it said. "Down over 500 police officers."

While Dallas’ finest have lobbied hard on the pension bill in Austin and staged protests in Dallas, they haven’t gone over the top with public displays. And they agreed to make “life-altering decisions,” said Jim McDade, president of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association.

“We know the importance of a defined-benefit plan, so we’re willing to take the cuts to make it work,” McDade said. “It’s what has to be done to save the fund. Then we can start building it in the future.”

The proposed cuts are worth $1.4 billion over 30 years. They include raising the retirement age, trimming benefit multipliers and reducing the maximum payout to 90 percent of salary, down from 96 percent.

For another data point, consider the hit to retirement pay. A 40-year-old Dallas officer who retires in 2035 would face a benefit reduction of 13 percent, in today's dollars. By age 70, the benefit would be 40 percent lower, according to a pension system estimate.

By comparison, city employees in Detroit took a 4.5 percent cut on their pensions after that city went bankrupt.

Police and firefighters in Dallas also would contribute more of their pay to the pension. Most currently contribute 8.5 percent while those in the deferred retirement plan, known as DROP, contribute 4 percent. Under the proposal, all police and fire would kick in 13.5 percent of pay.

That’s worth over $1 billion in additional contributions over the next 30 years, said Summer Loveland, chief financial officer of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System.

The pension bill allows the future board to recover some of the excessive gains credited to DROP accounts. Those clawbacks, which the city calls equity adjustments, could be worth over $500 million — but only if they’re pursued and only if the move withstands a legal challenge.

Together, the elements would fill about three-quarters of the $3.7 billion unfunded liability in the pension. Higher contributions from the city would total about $700 million, Loveland estimated.

Dallas' CFO put the number at $200 million more over 30 years for both the city and workers.

There’s no standard ratio for sharing the costs of a public pension fix, experts said. But the bigger burden usually falls on the public sector. In part, that’s because problems often start with external events, such as a recession or financial collapse. Dallas is different.

“What’s unusual in Dallas is how much of the unfunded liability can be attributed to very specific management decisions,” said Greg Mennis, who directs work on public sector retirement systems for the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Most of the shortfall stems from paying excessive interest rates on DROP accounts and high cost-of-living increases. The fund also invested heavily in real estate and other alternatives, which led to a deeper hole.

For many years, DROP accounts paid a guaranteed interest rate of almost 9 percent annually, and members could stay in 15 years or longer. Pew compared 27 plans nationally and found that DROP accounts paid an average of 2 percent and were limited to five years.

Former pension managers compounded the problems by not fessing up years ago, the fund's executive director Kelly Gottschalk said in March. Bad investments weren't valued correctly and an audit firm used assumptions that "masked the truth," she said.

“A lot of things were done on purpose to not show the real situation,” said Gottschalk.

That history helps explain why the fix is so tilted: With culpability comes accountability. While pension leaders created the crisis, first responders have to ride to the rescue.

Sharing the pain

To rescue their pension, Dallas police and firefighters would make $1.4 billion in benefit cuts, including these:

•Virtually end cost-of-living increases

•End lump sums for DROP accounts

•Zero interest on future deferrals into DROP

•Raise full retirement age to 58

•Lower pension formula multiplier

•End future health-care supplement

•Lower formula for final average salary

•Reduce benefit for early retirement

•Max out retirement benefit at 90% of salary, down from 96%

SOURCE: Dallas Police and Fire Pension System