JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
Chief Justice Karmeier and Justices Kilbride, Garman, Burke, Theis, and Neville concurred in the judgment and opinion.
OPINION
¶ 1 This case involves challenges to the applicability and constitutionality of Public Act 97-651 (eff. Jan. 5, 2012), which altered articles 8, 11, and 17 of the Illinois Pension Code (40 ILCS 5/arts. 8, 11, 17 (West 2012)). The individual plaintiffs are nine retired or working employees (or in one instance a surviving spouse of a deceased former employee) of the City of Chicago (City) or Chicago Board of Education. These individual plaintiffs are all participants in one of three public pension funds—the Laborers' and Retirement Board Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (LABF), the Municipal Employees' Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (MEABF), and the Public School Teachers' Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago (CTPF). These three public pension funds, along with their governing boards, are named as defendants (hereinafter also referred to collectively as the Funds). Additionally three local labor organizations intervened as union plaintiffs. ¶ 2 The parties eventually filed cross-motions for summary judgment in the circuit court of Cook County. Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of three reforms in Public Act 97-651 that modify the calculation of annuities. The Attorney General appeared on behalf of the State of Illinois and intervened as a defendant to defend the constitutionality of Public Act 97-651, while the Funds argued against jurisdictional, declaratory, and equitable claims raised by plaintiffs. In the course of granting in part and denying in part the competing motions for summary judgment, the circuit court invalidated two distinct provisions of Public Act 97-651, ruling that they violated the pension-protection clause of the Illinois Constitution (Ill. Const. 1970, art. XIII, § 5). The circuit court upheld the constitutionality of the third reform of Public Act 97-651 challenged by plaintiffs. We granted the parties' petitions for leave to appeal and consolidated the two appeals.
Or, as is the case with one of the plaintiffs, a survivor of a participant.
Only one of the two provisions found unconstitutional by the circuit court is at issue in this appeal.
¶ 3 BACKGROUND
¶ 4 The Funds calculate pension annuities for their participants through a formula established by the Illinois Pension Code in articles 8 (governing the MEABF), 11 (governing the LABF), and 17 (governing the CTPF). The inputs for the formula are derived from the years of service of an employee, dictating the percentage of the employee salary, multiplied by the highest average annual salary in the last few years before retirement. See, e.g., 40 ILCS 5/8-138(g-1), 11-134(f-1), 17-116 (West 2010). Participants thus have incentives to serve as public employees for ¶ 18 With respect to plaintiffs' request for a declaration that section 8-226(c)(3) did not apply to defined contribution plans, in contrast to defined benefit plans, the circuit court rejected plaintiffs' argument and granted summary judgment for the Funds on this issue (counts X and XII of plaintiffs' complaint). Section 8-226(c)(3) provides that a participant may only earn union service credit in the MEABF if "the participant does not receive credit in any pension plan established by the local labor organization based on his employment by the organization." Id. Plaintiffs argued before the circuit court that in a defined benefit plan, such as the MEABF, a participant receives a fixed regular payment of a pension based on the participants' years of service credit and other factors such as salary and age. In a defined contribution plan, however, the participant is not guaranteed a fixed and regular pension payment based on years of service. Rather, the participant receives only the value of contributions and investment returns in his individual account. The circuit court rejected plaintiffs' argument, placing great weight on the modifier "any" and concluding that plaintiffs were "not seeking a mere liberal construction of an ambiguous provision, but the outright insertion of limiting terms to the otherwise clear and general phrase 'any pension plan.' " ¶ 19 We allowed the State's petition for leave to appeal seeking reversal of the circuit's order granting summary judgment for plaintiffs on counts IA, IIA, and IIIA, which found that the statutory amendments eliminating the right to earn union service credit for leaves of absence beginning after the effective date of the amendments violates the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution. We also allowed plaintiffs' petition for leave to appeal of the denial of their claims (1) challenging the amendment disallowing the use of union salary in the calculation of "highest average annual salary" and (2) seeking a declaration that the "any pension plan" language of section 8-226(c)(3) of the Pension Code does not include a defined contribution plan. We have consolidated the parties' appeals and will address the State's appeal first.
¶ 20 ANALYSIS
¶ 21 Summary judgment is warranted where there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. 735 ILCS 5/2-1005(c) (West 2012). By filing cross-motions for summary judgment, the parties extend an invitation to the court to decide the questions presented as a matter of law. Nationwide Financial, LP v. Pobuda, 2014 IL 116717, ¶ 24. We review summary judgment rulings de novo. Bremer v. City of Rockford, 2016 IL 119889, ¶ 20.
¶ 22 I. Elimination of Union Service Credit for Leaves of Absence
¶ 23 Before this court, the State argues that the circuit court erred in finding that the future ability to earn service credit for private employment in a labor organization is protected by the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution. According to the State, the drafters of the constitution and the voters that ratified it could not have intended to offer constitutional protection to such a benefit where the benefit is not actually based on public service and does not encourage future public service. ¶ 24 We note that statutes are presumptively constitutional and the party challenging the validity of a statute bears the burden of rebutting this presumption by establishing a clear constitutional violation. McElwain v. Office of the Illinois Secretary of State, 2015 IL 117170, ¶ 14. We will uphold the constitutional validity of a statute whenever reasonably possible. Id. It is well established, however, that, where there is any question as to the legislative intent and clarity of the language of a pension statute, it must be liberally construed in favor of the rights of the pensioner. Kanerva v. Weems, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 55. This rule applies "with equal force" to interpretations of the provisions of the pension protection clause of our state constitution. Id. Thus, to the extent that there may be any lingering doubt about the meaning or effect of the provisions at issue in this case, we must resolve that doubt in favor of the members of this State's public retirement system. Id. ¶ 25 Here, the circuit court held Public Act 97-651 unconstitutional to the extent that it took away a retirement benefit that the legislature had previously granted—the right to claim union service credit—in violation of the pension protection clause. Article XIII, section 5, of the Illinois Constitution sets forth the pension clause as follows:
"Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof,
shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired." Ill. Const. 1970, art. XIII, § 5.
Under this language, if something qualifies as a benefit of the enforceable contractual relationship resulting from membership in one of the pension or retirement systems of any unit of local government or school district of the State, " 'it cannot be diminished or impaired.' "
In re Pension Reform Litigation, 2015 IL 118585, ¶ 45 (
Heaton) (quoting
Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 38). This includes all pension benefits that flow directly from membership.
Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 40. The benefits protected by the pension protection clause include those benefits attendant to membership in the State's retirement system, such as subsidized health care, disability and life insurance coverage, and eligibility to receive a retirement annuity and survivor benefits (see
Jones v.
Municipal Employees' Annuity & Benefit Fund, 2016 IL 119618, ¶ 36;
Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶¶ 39, 41), along with the right to purchase optional service credit in the state pension system for past military service (see
Buddell v.
Board of Trustees, 118 Ill. 2d 99, 105-06 (1987). ¶ 26 The protections afforded by our constitution to such benefits attach once an individual begins employment in a position covered by a public retirement system, not when the employee ultimately retires.
Heaton, 2015 IL 118585, ¶ 46. Therefore, once a person commences to work and becomes a member of a public retirement system, any subsequent changes to the Pension Code that would diminish the benefits conferred by membership in the retirement system cannot be applied to that person.
Id.
Heaton further emphasized that
"[a]dditional benefits may always be added, of course [citation], and the State may require additional employee contributions or other consideration in exchange [citation]. However, once the additional benefits are in place and the employee continues to work, remains a member of a covered retirement system, and complies with any qualifications imposed when the additional benefits were first offered, the additional benefits cannot be unilaterally diminished or eliminated."
Id. ¶ 46 n.12.
¶ 27 It is undisputed that, when plaintiffs began their employment and became members of the public pension system, they had the statutory right to count time spent on leave of absence with their local labor organization in their annuity calculations. The benefit plaintiffs seek to enforce is their right that existed in the
absence working for a teacher labor organization was one of the retirement system benefits in the Pension Code for many years prior to and at the time the Illinois Constitution was debated by the drafters and then ratified by the voters (see Ill. Rev. Stat. 1969, ch. 108½, ¶ 17-134), just like the right to purchase the past military service credit involved in
Buddell. Thus, it was the public policy of the State at the time our constitution was adopted to grant a path to such service credit as a benefit of participation in at least one of the public retirement systems. Similar to a legislature that is presumed to act with knowledge of all prior legislation, the drafters of the constitution are presumed to have acted with full knowledge of existing statutory law and the public policy of this state.
Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 41. If the drafters had intended to prevent any benefit related to service credit in connection with work done for a labor organization while on a leave of absence, they could have so specified, especially where union service credit was already part of the existing pension statute to some extent. But they did not. Rather, the drafters chose "expansive language" that broadly defines the range of benefits encompassed. ¶ 31 Plaintiffs have offered a public policy rationale for the union-service benefit, arguing that it encourages public employees who do go to work for their unions to take a leave of absence rather than quitting their public jobs altogether, thereby increasing the likelihood that they might return to their public employment. Plaintiffs also maintain that the benefit furthers the State's labor relations policies by promoting experienced public employees familiar with public service contracts and priorities to serve as management counterparts in collective bargaining. The State, on the other hand, argues that the benefit in question actually encourages public servants to discontinue active government employment. ¶ 32 We find that, regardless of the purpose of the benefit and the merits of the suggested utility of the benefit, it was a matter for the legislature to decide. And, as
Kanerva noted, "[w]e may not rewrite the pension protection clause to include restrictions and limitations that the drafters did not express and the citizens of Illinois did not approve."
Id. Accordingly, we hold that the circuit court correctly determined that Public Act 97-651 was unconstitutional to the extent that it eliminated as a pension benefit for current participants the ability to earn union service credit previously bestowed by the legislature.
¶ 33 II. Calculation of "Highest Average Annual Salary"
¶ 34 We turn now to plaintiffs' appeal and first address the issue of whether the amendments of Public Act 97-651 purporting to "clarify" that only public salaries may be used in calculating the "highest annual average salary" violate the pension clause of our constitution. Plaintiff's argument requires this court to construe a number of provisions of the Pension Code. ¶ 35 We note at the outset that the primary goal in construing a statute is to ascertain and give effect to the legislature's intent, and the best indicator of that intent is the language of the statute itself. Slepicka v. Illinois Department of Public Health, 2014 IL 116927, ¶ 14. But a court will not read language in isolation; it will consider it in the context of the entire statute. Id. It is also proper to consider not only the language of the statute but the reason for the law, the problem sought to be remedied, the goals to be achieved, and the consequences of construing the statute one way or another. Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, 2012 IL 112566, ¶ 15. Additionally, we must presume that the legislature did not intend to produce absurd, inconvenient, or unjust results. Board of Education of Springfield School District No. 186 v. Attorney General, 2017 IL 120343, ¶ 25. ¶ 36 A statute is ambiguous if it can fairly be understood by reasonably well-informed persons in two or more different ways. People ex rel. Birkett v. City of Chicago, 202 Ill. 2d 36, 46 (2002). Furthermore, whenever there is any question as to the legislative intent and clarity of the language of a pension statute, it must be liberally construed in favor of the rights of the pensioners. Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 36. ¶ 37 Before Public Act 97-651 was enacted, both the LABF and the MEABF calculated pensions based on the participants' "highest average annual salary for any 4 consecutive years in the last 10 years of service." 40 ILCS 5/8-138(g-1), 11-134(f-1) (West 2010); see also id. §§ 8-138(b), 11-134(a). As was the case with some of the individual plaintiffs in this lawsuit, when a member took a leave of absence to work for a local union and contributed to the Funds for union service credit, they may have done so for years and ultimately retired while still on a leave of absence. In such cases where the salaries earned by the member from the union job were among his highest 4 consecutive years in the last 10 years of service, the LABF and MEABF used those salaries to calculate the "highest average annual salary." This was consistent with the provision enacted in 1991, requiring that the contributions by the participant for union service credit while on leave of absence be "based on his current salary with such labor organization." Id. §§ 8-226(c), 11-215(c)(3). Thus, according to the LABF's and the MEABF's interpretations, the salary base for contribution purposes and for pension-calculation purposes was the same. ¶ 38 Public Act 97-651 eliminated this possibility of using a salary paid to the member while on leave of absence to work for a union in calculating the "highest average annual salary" for pension purposes. In that regard, the Act added a new subsection (e) to both section 8-233 and section 11-217. These subsections now provide as follows:
"This Article shall not be construed to authorize a salary paid by an entity other than an employer, as defined in [section 8-110 or section 11-107], to be used to calculate the highest average annual salary of a participant. This subsection (e) is a declaration of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment."
40 ILCS 5/8-233(e), 11-217(e) (West 2012).
"Employer," as defined in sections 8-110 and 11-107 and referred to in subsection (e) quoted above, is limited to large cities and certain public entities and boards and does not include local labor organizations. See
id. §§ 8-110, 11-107. ¶ 39 Public Act 97-651 also amended section 8-138(g-1) by clarifying the meaning of highest average annual salary as shown in part in the italicized portion as follows:
"For purpose of calculating this annuity, 'final average salary' means the highest average annual salary for any 4 consecutive years in the last 10 years of service.
Nothwithstanding [
sic]
any provision of this subsection to the contrary,
the 'final average salary' for a participant that received credit under subsection (c) of Section 8-226 means the highest average salary for any 4 consecutive years (or any 8 consecutive years if the employee first became a participant on or after January 1,
2011) in the 10 years immediately prior to the leave of absence,
and adding to that highest average salary,
the product of (i) that highest average salary,
(ii) the average percentage increase in the
Consumer Price Index during each 12-month calendar year for the calendar years during the participant's leave of absence,
and (iii) the length of the leave of absence in years,
provided that this shall not exceed the participant's salary at the local labor organization.
For purposes of this Section,
the Consumer Price Index is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for all items published by the United States Department of Labor." Pub. Act 97-651 (eff. Jan. 5, 2012) (amending
40 ILCS 5/8-138(g-1)).
The legislature made a similar amendment to the LABF article. See
40 ILCS 5/11-134(f-1) (West 2012). ¶ 40 Plaintiffs argue that the above-quoted amendments changed the law by eliminating the possibility of using salary paid to a member by a union to calculate highest average annual salary. Plaintiffs maintain that the changes diminished their preexisting retirement system benefits by limiting the salary base for their pensions. They contend that the text of articles 8 and 11 of the Pension Code before the amendments permitted a union salary to be used in the highest average salary calculation and that, even if the Pension Code was ambiguous in this respect before Public Act 97-651, the legislature could not simply declare their amendments to be a "declaration of existing law" in order to clear up the ambiguity and circumvent the protection of the pension clause. ¶ 41 In response, the State argues that the amendments of Public Act 97-651 did not change the meaning of the Pension Code because it always unambiguously required that the salary to be used for calculating the pension was to be the salary attached to the government position in which the employee actually worked or from which he was on leave of absence. To support its argument, the State relies upon a link between the definitions of "salary," "present employee," and "employer" under the Pension Code. The State first notes the definition of "salary" in section 8-117 of the Pension Code, which states in relevant part:
" 'Salary': Annual salary of an
employee as follows:
***
(b) If appropriated, fixed or arranged on an annual basis, beginning July, 1957, the actual sum payable during the year if the employee worked the full
normal working time in his position, at the rate of compensation, exclusive of overtime and final vacation, appropriated or fixed as salary or wages for service in the position.
(c) If appropriated, fixed or arranged on other than an annual basis, beginning July 1, 1957, the applicable schedules specified in Sections 8-233 and 8-235 shall be used for conversion of the salary to an annual basis." (Emphasis added.) 40 ILCS 5/8-117 (West 2010).
The State further notes that the Pension Code at all times defined "present employee" as "[a]ny employee of an employer" (
id. § 8-114(a)) and the word "employer" has always referred to certain government entities, such as the City or the Chicago Board of Education. As did the circuit court, the State also believes the statutory references to "appropriated" reinforce the notion that the salary for purposes of the calculation was meant to be the one set by the public employer. ¶ 42 We find the Pension Code prior to the amendments to be ambiguous on the question of whether the union salary while on leave of absence could be used as a basis for calculating the pension and find the State's argument to the contrary to be unpersuasive. The State places great weight on the definitions of "salary," "employee," and "employer" found in the Pension Code. But it must be kept in mind that the Pension Code specifically provided that the salary base for pension purposes was the "highest average annual salary for any consecutive 4 years
in the last 10 years of service." (Emphasis added.)
Id. § 8-138(g-1). Work done on a union leave of absence is indisputably a "period of service." Nothing in the statute before the amendment specifically stated that a union salary paid to an employee during his last 10 years of service could not be used in the calculation. We do not deduce a legislative intent with the definition of "salary" in the Pension Code to define a limited class of payers of a salary. Rather, the purpose of the definition seems to be to provide directions about such matters as whether overtime could be included in annual salary and how to convert an hourly wage to an annual salary. ¶ 43 The Pension Code's definitions of "employee" and "employer" do not clear up the ambiguity. All the parties to this lawsuit concede that an employee on leave of absence from his public job retains his status at all times as an employee of his public employer and continues to be a "participant" for pension purposes.
40 ILCS 5/8-113(a) (West 2012). The question that was left unanswered was whether the union salary could be used in the calculation. ¶ 44 We also do not find controlling the legislature's use of the term "appropriated." While that term does suggest a governmental appropriation, the statute also uses the terms "fixed or arranged," which are placed in the disjunctive in section 8-117(b) and could be read consistently with the setting of a salary by a private employer.
At any rate, we note that the meaning ascribed to a term defined in the Pension Code, such as "salary," can differ when "the context otherwise requires." Id. §§ 8-102, 11-217(b). Here, the context requires otherwise. The legislative intent of the above-noted definitions to set rules for calculating the amount of a salary rather than to limit the class of payers of a salary is evident in that these provisions have not been materially changed since the Pension Code was adopted in 1963. It was not until 1987 that the legislature adopted union service credit in the LABF and MEABF. In 1963, there was no service credit for any period of union service. The only salaries the employees would have been earning or upon which they would have been contributing to the pension fund were government salaries. Four years after the 1987 amendment allowing union service credit, the legislature made another amendment, this time to provide that an employee's union service credit contributions had to be "based on his current salary with such labor organization." 40 ILCS 5/8-226(c)(1), (2), 11-215(c)(3)(A), (B) (West 2010). It seems more likely than not that the legislature intended the salary base for contribution purposes to be the same as for pension calculation purposes following the 1987 and 1991 amendments, but as noted above, we find the statute to be ambiguous on whether the legislature intended the union salary to be used in the calculation. It seems that if it had intended to exclude the union salary from the calculation of the pension base but not for contribution purposes, it would have clearly stated so at the time of the 1987 or 1991 amendments. ¶ 45 Moreover, it would arguably create an absurd result to interpret the statutory scheme as it existed prior to Public Act 97-651 to exclude the union salary from the calculation of the "highest average annual salary for any 4 consecutive years in the last 10 years of service." Id. §§ 8-138(g-1), 11-134(f-1); see also id. §§ 8-138(b), 11-134(a). If before the Act the highest average annual salary could not be calculated using the union salary the participant was actually earning during his leave of absence, a conflict with sections 8-138 and 11-134 would arise whenever a with giving directions for assessing the amount of the salary rather than who could be a payer of a salary. ¶ 49 The State argues that, even if the statutory scheme with respect to whether a union salary can be considered in the calculation is ambiguous, the legislature properly clarified that it was always intended to mean the salary for the employee's position with the public employer. In support of its stance, the State cites general case law for the proposition that an amendment may be applied retroactively if its purpose is to clarify an existing law that is ambiguous. ¶ 50 There are a number of reasons why the State's argument is faulty and cannot be applied to the circumstances here. First, the legislative intent that controls the construction of a public act is the intent of the legislature that passed that act, not the intent of the legislature that amends the act many years later. O'Casek v. Children's Home, 229 Ill. 2d 421, 441-42 (2008). Here, we have already determined that the language is ambiguous and the legislative intent unclear. Second, because it was a pension statute that was found to be ambiguous, the rule applies that, where there is any question as to legislative intent and the clarity of the language, "it must be liberally construed in favor of the rights of the pensioner." Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 55. If the legislature had the power to "clarify" the intent of an ambiguous pension statute against the rights of the participants, it would essentially negate the protections of the pension clause and override the proviso from Kanerva about the court's duty to liberally construe pension statutes in favor of the rights of the pensioners. ¶ 51 For the reasons noted, we hold that the ambiguous statutory framework prior to the amendment of Public Act 97-651 must be construed as allowing the right to use a union salary from a leave of absence under section 8-226(c) or 11-215(c)(3) to calculate the highest average annual salary. The amendments effected by Public Act 97-651 necessarily changed the law and thereby diminished plaintiffs' retirement system benefits in violation of the pension-protection clause of the Illinois Constitution. The circuit court therefore erred in granting the State's motion to dismiss the counts of plaintiffs' complaint that raised this issue.
¶ 52 III. Whether "Any Pension Plan" Includes
a Defined Contribution Plan
¶ 53 Plaintiffs next raise an issue of statutory construction unrelated to the two constitutional issues resolved above. They argue that the circuit court erred in denying their motion for summary judgment with respect to counts X and XI of their complaint, which sought a declaration that the "any pension plan" language of section 8-226(c)(3) of the Pension Code does not apply to defined contribution plans. In that regard, section 8-226(c)(3) provides that an MEABF member may receive service credit for time spent on a leave of absence working for a local labor organization, provided "the participant does not receive credit in any pension plan established by the local labor organization based on his employment by the organization." 40 ILCS 5/8-226(c)(3) (West 2012). Plaintiffs concede that the phrase "receive credit in any pension plan" clearly applies to a defined benefit plan established by a local labor organization, but they contend that the phrase was not intended to include a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k) plan. The difference between the two kinds of plans is significant. Defined benefit plans, such as the MEABF, provide a fixed, regular payment upon retirement determined by a formula giving the participant credit for years of service and other factors such as age and salary. See id. §§ 8-138, 8-226; Jones, 2016 IL 119618, ¶ 4 ("[T]he City pension funds provide traditional defined benefit plans under which members receive specified annuities upon retirement generally based upon the member's salary, years of service, and age at retirement."); see also In re Marriage of Blackston, 258 Ill. App. 3d 401, 402 (1994). By contrast, in a defined contribution plan the participant is not entitled to any guaranteed, fixed, and regular payments upon retirement. Instead the participant is entitled only to the accumulated value of contributions at the time of any withdrawal. 40 ILCS 5/8-138, 8-226 (West 2012). The way section 8-226(c)(3) is interpreted will have a significant impact for a few of the plaintiffs in this case who are in jeopardy of losing significant amounts of service credit in the Funds for having contributed to a defined contribution plan through their union job while on a leave of absence from their government employment. ¶ 54 Plaintiffs note that section 8-226(c)(3)'s prohibition only applies if the participant "receives credit" in a pension plan. Plaintiffs claim that the statute is referring to receiving service credit based on a period of employment. They ¶ 58 Plaintiffs argue that these dictionary definitions are consistent with what a participant in the Funds would commonly understand a "pension plan" to be. A person with only a 401(k) defined contribution plan, for example, would not likely think of himself as having a "pension," given that the amount to be received upon retirement is not guaranteed and not "definitely determinable." Nor is it based on any factors such as years of service or salary. Instead, he would be much more likely to think of himself as having a retirement savings plan. Only someone in a defined benefit plan would be likely to think of himself as having a pension. ¶ 59 The defendant Funds also cite dictionary definitions for "pension" dating to the time period when the statute was enacted. But those definitions actually support plaintiffs' argument that the legislature may have intended only defined benefit plans, not defined contribution plans, when it used the phrase "any pension plan." For example, the Funds cite Webster's New World Dictionary: Second Concise Edition (1982), which defines "pension" as "a regular payment, not wages, to one who has fulfilled certain requirements, as of service, age, disability, etc." Similarly, the Funds rely on an online version of a Merriam-Webster dictionary that defines "pension" as "a fixed sum paid regularly to a person." Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pension (last visited Nov. 8, 2018) [https://perma.cc/LPG8-9Z6F]. But these definitions speak of a "fixed sum," "paid regularly," based on such factors as "service" and "age," and would thus be consistent with a traditional defined benefit plan but not a defined contribution plan. A defined contribution plan guarantees only the value of the contributions to the plan that survive the variables of market performance, and there is no fixed, determinable, guaranteed amount based on service and age. See In re Marriage of Blackston, 258 Ill. App. 3d at 402. ¶ 60 The only definition that solidly supports the Funds' broad definition is found in the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which defines a "pension plan" as follows:
"any plan, fund, or program, which was heretofore or is hereafter established or maintained by an employer or by an employee organization ***
(i) [that] provides retirement income to employees, or
(ii) results in a deferral of income by employees for periods extending to the termination of covered employment or beyond,
regardless of the method of calculating contributions made to the plan, the method of calculating the benefits under the plan or the method of distributing benefits from the plan. (Emphases added.) 29 U.S.C. § 1002(2)(A) (2012).
The Funds note that, because this definition of "pension plan" is so broad, "virtually any contract that provides for some type of deferred compensation will also establish a de facto pension plan" under ERISA.
Modzelewski v.
Resolution Trust Corp.,
14 F.3d 1374, 1377 (9th Cir. 1994). The Funds argue that "it is a stretch" to think that the Illinois General Assembly was not aware of this ERISA definition when it enacted the language of section 8-226(c)(3) of the Pension Code in 1987 because the ERISA definition of "pension plan" was firmly in place by then. ¶ 61 We note that the existence of alternate dictionary definitions of a word or phrase, each making some sense under the statute, leads to the conclusion that the term in question is ambiguous.
Poris v.
Lake Holiday Property Owners Ass'n, 2013 IL 113907, ¶ 50. Here, the broad definition of "pension" found in ERISA contrasts with the more common understanding of "pension" found in the dictionary definitions quoted above. The ERISA definition alone is obviously not controlling of the outcome here where the Pension Code makes no reference to it. Moreover, the purpose of the ERISA definition of "pension plan" seems to be to have a wide sweep to protect the expected benefits of plan participants (see
Sly v.
P.
R.
Mallory & Co.,
712 F.2d 1209, 1211 (7th Cir. 1983)), while the purpose of section 8-226(c)(3) is to prohibit a member from receiving credit toward a pension for the same period of time he is receiving credit in a pension of a local labor organization. But absent from section 8-226(c)(3) is any obvious intent to prohibit an employee from accumulating retirement savings in some other way, such as a defined contribution plan account. Assuming that it would be a worthy public policy benefit at all to allow a union leave of absence like the ones involved in this case, it would seem that deterring such forms of retirement savings, especially where they might not involve any employer contributions at all, would be an unlikely public policy. ¶ 62 The Funds focus on the word
any in the "any pension plan" language of the statute. But if a defined benefit plan is a pension plan and a defined contribution
plan is not a pension plan under the commonly understood meaning of "pension plan" in 1987 when the provision was enacted, then defendants' argument must be rejected. At any rate, to the extent that there are competing definitions of "pension" or "pension plan," some that would and some that would not include defined contribution plans, it means only that the term as used in section 8-226(c)(3) "does not have a single plain meaning but is ambiguous." See
Landis v.
Marc Realty L.
L.
C.,
235 Ill. 2d 1, 11 (2009). ¶ 63 Because the term "pension plan" in section 8-226(c)(3) is ambiguous in this respect, it must be liberally construed in favor of the rights of the pensioners so as to apply to a defined benefit plan only and not to defined contribution plans. See
Kanerva, 2014 IL 115811, ¶ 55. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court and hold that the term "receive credit in any pension plan" as used in section 8-226(c)(3) does not include defined contribution plans.
¶ 64 CONCLUSION
¶ 65 Our resolution of the foregoing issues renders it unnecessary to address the alternative arguments raised by the parties in their briefs. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the circuit court's judgment granting plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and denying defendants' cross motions for summary judgment on the counts of plaintiffs' complaint raising a pension-clause challenge to the elimination of the right to earn service credit for a union leave of absence. We find that the circuit court properly held that, with respect to participants who were already members on the effective date of Public Act 97-651, the denial of the future ability to earn service credit on leave of absence for labor organization employment violated the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution. We reverse the circuit court's judgment dismissing the portions of plaintiffs' complaint that alleged a violation of the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution related to Public Act 97-651's change in the law to deny the use of a union salary under section 8-226(c) or 11-215(c)(3) to calculate the "highest average annual salary." We also reverse the circuit court's rulings on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment that resulted from the circuit court's construction of section 8-226(c)(3) to include defined contribution plans within the definition of "any pension plan." We remand the cause to the circuit court of Cook County for further proceedings consistent 25 with this opinion. ¶ 66 Circuit court judgments affirmed in part and reversed in part. ¶ 67 Cause remanded.