NEELY, Chief Justice:
This mandamus proceeding presents the question whether certain 1994 amendments to our State’s public safety pension plan impair the obligations of contract under art. Ill, § 4 of the West Virginia Constitution. We granted a rule to show cause to set the law in clear and unambiguous terms concerning the pension rights of thousands of West Virginia public employees who have given their lives to government service and now rely for their future health, welfare and security upon the promises made to them by their fellow citizens through the elected legislature. For the reasons given below, legitimate expectations of government servants cannot be confounded after those servants have partially performed their part of the bargain with the people, relied to their detriment, and foreclosed other career options. Accordingly, to the extent that we find the 1994 public safety amendments unconstitutional in this opinion, we award the petitioners a writ of mandamus.
I.
THE FACTS
For the past seventy-five years, the West Virginia Division of Public Safety [“Division”] 1 has employed hundreds of state troopers. These troopers are charged with protecting the life, liberty and property of our citizens, and this Court takes judicial [330]*330notice that law enforcement is a physically demanding and dangerous occupation. Rule 201, W.Va.Rules of Evidence.
In 1919, the Division began its mission with one hundred and twenty-five men who had uniforms adapted from the World War I infantryman uniform. Today, the Division employs over five hundred men and women who are charged with law enforcement duties in what remains a paramilitary organization.
The legislature established a pension plan for the Division’s trooper members in 1935. The plan originally required all troopers to make contributions amounting to 4 percent of their salaries and it was provided that the Division would match these contributions with an equal 4 percent payment.2
By 1993, the pension system required all state troopers to pay 6 percent of their salaries into the retirement system, and the Division made matching contributions of 12 percent. W.Va.Code 15-2-26 [1990]. After meeting eligibility3 for retirement, a state trooper could then expect to receive an annual pension equal to 5.5 percent of his or her cumulative lifetime earnings as a state trooper or $6,000, whichever was greater4. W.Va. Code 15-2-27(c)(l) and (2) [1988]. In other words, if a trooper had earned $500,000 in total salary payments as a trooper over twenty-five years of service, his or her pension would be $27,500 per year for the rest of his or her life. In addition, beginning in 1988, the legislature also allowed all eligible retired members who had reached age fifty-six and over to collect an additional 3.75 percent of their pension awards as an annual annuity adjustment. W.Va.Code 15-2-27a [1988].
Before the legislature amended the plan’s benefits in 1988, concern had arisen concern[331]*331ing the future solvency of the Division’s pension system. According to a 1987 actuarial study, the existing contributions into the system were not sufficient to meet future pension payments, and the periodic increases in benefits without the necessary additional contribution levels from the employees and the Division created an $11,400,000 fund deficit. Although the plan’s contribution levels had remained at the 18 to 20 percent of salary during the 1970s and 1980s, the 1987 actuarial review suggested that the required contributions should have been between 25 and 30 percent of the existing salary level. By 1990, the unfunded liability of the fund totalled over 88 million dollars, and the actuarial report prepared for the Division estimated the pension fund would be in a deficit by 2005.
Following the retirement of twenty-four state troopers during the calendar year 19935, the legislature responded to concerns about the fund’s actuarial soundness and amended the pension plan in 1994.6 The newly wrought changes at issue here: (1) increased the monthly payroll deduction from state troopers’ salaries from 6 percent to 7.5 percent effective 1 July 1994 and raised these contributions to 9 percent effective 1 July 1995; (2) prohibited the state troopers’ use of accumulated but unused annual and sick leave as credit toward years of service in determining eligibility for retirement benefits (effective 15 July 1994); and (3) reduced the public safety retirement annual annuity (cost of living) adjustment from an annual 3.75 percent to 2 percent (effective 15 September 1994). W.Va.Code 15-2-26, 15-2-27(c)(2) and 15-2-27a [1994].7
On the effective dates of the amendments, the petitioners were all state police officers under the age of fifty who had over twenty years’ service with the Division.8 Thus, although no law compels them to do so, the petitioners may retire now and collect their respective pensions on the date that each of them reaches the age of fifty.9 W.Va.Code 15-2-27(c)(2) [1988 and 1994].
Rather than retire before 15 September 1994 in order to protect their rights to a greater annuity, however, the petitioners sought to enjoin the respondents’ implementation of the amendments and filed a declaratory judgment action in the Circuit Court of Kanawha County on 7 July 1994. The petitioners challenged the constitutionality of the amendments under the contracts clauses of the State and federal Constitutions. Thereafter, petitioners brought this original mandamus action in this Court and on 16 September 1994, the circuit court dismissed the petitioners’ declaratory judgment action.
In the mandamus proceeding now before this Court, the petitioners claim the pension amendments unconstitutionally impair the vested rights to which they were entitled before the new legislation. In reply, the respondents assert the petitioners have no vested rights and that the amendments are reasonable because they guarantee the fu[332]*332ture solvency of the public safety pension fund.
II.
THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PENSIONS
Although we have never doubted the constitutionality of pension plans, our past decisions have not elaborated on the reasons why pensions are legitimate debts of the State. However, given the current financial condition of the Division’s fund, as well as the impact of our decision here on future legislation that may affect the fund itself, this Court must first address the circumstances under which pensions of any sort are constitutional if we are to provide a complete statement on our pension law here.
W.Va. Const., art. X, § 4 provides “No debt shall be contracted by this State, except to meet casual deficits in the revenue, to redeem a previous liability of the State, to suppress insurrection, repel invasion or defend the State in time of war; but the payment of any liability other than that for the ordinary expenses of the State, shall be equally distributed over a period of at least twenty years.” See also, W.Va. Const., art. X, § 6 (prohibiting the State from granting credit to municipalities and from becoming an owner or stockholder in any company or association). Because debt today leads directly to cuts in services tomorrow, our constitutional provisions against state debt “are designed to prevent one generation of politicians from helping their friends whilst leaving the next generation of taxpayers to foot the bill.” Winkler v. School Building Authority, 189 W.Va. 748, 769, 434 S.E.2d 420, 441 (1993) (Neely, J., concurring).
The Winkler decision explored the constitutionality of certain school revenue bonds that were to be liquidated from the general revenue of the state. Before approving the bonds, the legislature placed various elis-claimers on the face of the bonds in order to escape the application of our Constitution’s prohibition against the creation of state debt. These disclaimers stated that the legislature was neither creating a debt of the State in violation of art. X, § 4, nor creating an obligation to appropriate money to liquidate the bonds. After analyzing our previous cases on the issue, as well as the reasons for our state’s prohibition against state-created debt, this Court ultimately concluded the State could not shirk its responsibilities to fund the bonds once it had undertaken its initial financial commitment. 189 W.Va. at 763, 764, 434 S.E.2d at 435, 436. We, therefore, forbade the issuance of similar bonds in the future.
In Winkler, we did note, however, that in certain instances the State could issue bonds when the bond proceeds, themselves, were to be used to build projects such as toll bridges, or buddings that generated money to liquidate the bond obligation. 189 W.Va. at 756-758, 434 S.E.2d at 428-430 (discussing funding arrangements that do not violate our constitutional debt limitations). In these instances, a special fund derives from the service itself, and, for this reason, lenders, not taxpayers, are the only potential losers if the project does not generate the anticipated returns.
This Court concluded long ago that our pension systems do not involve the creation of an unconstitutional debt. State ex rel. Board of Governors v. Sims, 133 W.Va. 239, 244, 55 S.E.2d 505, 508 (1949). Although Sims did not discuss the rationale behind its reasoning on this issue10, given our decision in Winkler it should now be clear that pension systems are constitutional for the same reasons that special revenue bonds are constitutional: The pledge for the pension fund derives from the actuarially sound contributions of the employees and the Division; that is, the fund is expected to generate its own money to meet its eventual [333]*333obligations. Because money is expected to be put away as a condition precedent to fund the system, pensions are legitimate debts of the state. Consequently, W.Va. Const, art. VI, § 51B(3)(d) requires the Governor to prepare a yearly budget that allows for payment of pensions as constitutionally created debt of the State.11
Until the passage of the amendments at issue in this case, the legislature had not sufficiently increased the contributions of the troopers and the Division to meet the State’s eventual pension debt, and according to a 1994 actuarial study, the unfunded accrued liability for the troopers’ retirement system now totals $166,668,239. This is not the first time that this has happened. In Dadisman v. Moore, 181 W.Va. 779, 384 S.E.2d 816 (1989), this Court confronted the financial problems of the Public Employees Retirement System [“PERS”], which, because of underfunding from the legislature, had incurred unfunded liabilities totaling between $56 and $80 million.
Dadisman arose from an original mandamus proceeding brought by a retired public employee against various executive and legislative officials charged with administering PERS. We found the PERS officials had breached their contractual, statutory and trust duties to petitioner by failing to appropriate sufficient money to maintain the actuarial soundness of PERS and we granted a writ requiring proper funding of the system.
In an effort to maintain the actuarial soundness of the Division’s pension system here, the legislature enacted the amendments to require greater contributions from the employees and the employer. Thus, in addressing the mandamus action now before us, we must consider whether the actuarial amendments, themselves, are constitutional measures designed to insure the fund’s solvency.
[334]*334III.
PAST CASES NEEDING CLARIFICATION
This Court has never expressly determined whether an employee, who otherwise satisfies the requirements for a pension but is still in active state service, may lose entitlements before he or she formally applies for retirement benefits. Instead, having often considered the issue of pension vesting in the context of retired employees who did not meet eligibility for pensions, we have decided some difficult cases that made incomplete law in this area.
We announced when a police officer may collect a pension under our law in State ex rel. Fox v. Board of Trustees of Policemen’s Pension, 148 W.Va. 369, 135 S.E.2d 262 (1964):
The right to a pension for a member of a municipal fire department or police department is based upon and created by ... statute [W.Va.Code 8-6-20 (1959)] and such right accrues or vests in such member only when all the statutory conditions are performed and all its requirements are complied with and satisfied. It is then and only then that a vested right to such pension accrues.
148 W.Va. at 373, 135 S.E.2d at 264 (citing State ex rel. Frye v. Bachrach, 175 Ohio State 419, 195 N.E.2d 803 (1964)).
Fox concerned a police officer’s right to a pension after his service ended with the City of Bluefield. When the officer resigned, he had continuously served over twenty-five years with the city, but he had not yet attained the age of fifty. After he reached fifty, however, the officer immediately applied for a pension, and the pension board denied his application. On appeal, we affirmed the board’s denial of benefits.
The result in Fox rested on our interpretation of W.Va.Code 8-6-20 [1959], which formerly governed an officer’s eligibility for a pension. Given the language of that statute, we found it allowed “a pension only for a member of a municipal fire department or police department who [had] been in the service of such department for twenty years and who [was] a member of such department when he [reached] the age of fifty years.” 148 W.Va. at 373, 135 S.E.2d at 265 [Emphasis added]. Because the officer resigned from service before he became fifty, he did not meet the requirements of the statute, and, consequently, he had no vested right in a pension. 148 W.Va. at 375, 135 S.E.2d at 266. In addition, Officer Fox had pled guilty to twenty-four felonies he committed while he was a policeman, and we held the pension statute also implicitly required honorable service to entitle an employee to retirement benefits. Syl.Pt. 3, Fox.
In 1976, the legislature codified Fox’s common law requirement of honorable service for receipt of pension benefits at W.Va.Code 5-10A-1 to 5-10A-10. We were eventually asked to decide the constitutionality of these enactments as they affected the rights of a long-term public employee who had been convicted of a felony for actions taken while Sheriff of Marion County in West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System v. Dodd, 183 W.Va. 544, 396 S.E.2d 725 (1990). Unlike Officer Fox, Sheriff Dodd had contributed12 to the pension system for over twenty-five years at the time the legislature made the above enactments, and he did not commit his felony until his thirtieth year of employment. Nevertheless, upon the sheriffs application for retirement benefits, the board denied his pension.
The sheriff argued he should receive at least a prorated portion of his pension for the services he rendered until he violated the law. He also asserted the 1976 enactments unconstitutionally impaired his pension rights under his employment contract. This Court, however, found the enactments did not impair the sheriffs contract because the implicit condition of honorable service at all times was never satisfied and, therefore, his contract rights to the pension never fully vested. 183 W.Va. at 550, 396 S.E.2d at 732. Given his misconduct, we held the sheriff had forfeited his entire pension.
[335]*335Both Fox and Dodd explored the issue of pension vesting in the context of employees who did not meet eligibility for benefits. However, Wagoner v. Gainer, 167 W.Va. 139, 279 S.E.2d 636 (1981), examined pension vesting as it applied to employees who were eligible and were receiving benefits.
In Wagoner, the legislature had passed amendments that reduced the pension benefits of retired supreme court justices and circuit court judges. Before the enactment of the amendments at issue in Wagoner, all eligible retired justices and judges could collect retirement benefits equal to 75 percent of the salary of their highest judicial office and their pensions went up as raises were given to active justices and judges. But, in 1979, the legislature repealed this “escalator provision,” and the aggrieved retired judges challenged the legislation as an unconstitutional impairment of contract under the state and federal Constitutions. Alter the circuit court granted the judges a writ of mandamus allowing them payments under the earlier “escalator provision,” the state auditor and treasurer appealed.
In Wagoner, the parties did not dispute that the appellees could receive a pension; instead, the dispute centered in the extent of the changes that the legislature could make to the retired pensioners’ plans. This Court discussed how other jurisdictions treated pension rights, and after a lengthy examination of the subject, we concluded:
Legislative modifications to a pension plan must be reasonable, and the test for reasonableness is whether the alteration to the pension scheme serves to keep the system sound and flexible [citations omitted.] Thus, beside the fact that the rights of retired plan members cannot be detrimentally altered at all, alterations to keep the trust fund stable should first be directed at threats to the trust fund’s solvency.
167 W.Va. at 154, 279 S.E.2d at 645. [Emphasis added].
By removing the “escalator provisions,” the legislature plainly subtracted benefits to which the appellees had a contract right. Consequently, we found the legislation impaired the obligations of contract. 167 W.Va. at 154, 279 S.E.2d at 646.
Until our decision in Dodd, Wagoner seemingly controlled our analysis of public employees’ pension rights. In fact, before we issued the Dodd opinion, we held in Dadis-man, supra, that “retired and active PERS plan participants have contractually vested property rights created by the pension statute, and such property rights are enforceable and cannot be impaired or diminished by the State.” Syl. Pt. 16, Dadisman [Emphasis added].
As noted earlier, Dadisman, supra, found the executive and legislative branches had failed to make the PERS fund actuarially sound over the course of many years. In analyzing the PERS trustees’ duties to members of the fund, we concluded that the PERS trustees’ failure to fund the pension system improperly impaired the state’s obligations of contract to the participating plan members.
The petitioners suggest Dadisman (and Wagoner) establish contractually vested property interests for all participants in a contributory pension program. Unfortunately, the petitioners’ argument does not reflect our previous holdings on this issue because, as our discussion below will reveal, our cases have unnecessarily merged pension eligibility with pension vesting. Our most recent pronouncement on pension vesting, Mullett v. City of Huntington Police Pension Board, 186 W.Va. 488, 413 S.E.2d 143 (1991), serves as an example.
Mullett is deceptively similar to the case now before us because it considered whether the legislature could amend an active13 employee’s pension plan without unconstitutionally impairing the obligations of contract. Officer Mullett began his employment with the Huntington Police Department on 23 April 1968 and remained a full-time employee until his retirement in April 1991. During this period, to qualify for pension benefits, an officer needed at least twenty years’ service [336]*336under former W.Va.Code 8-6-20 [1967] (“1968 statute”).14 On the date of Officer Mullett’s hire, the 1968 statute also conceivably allowed an officer with at least one day of military service to apply for an early pension.15 In 1986, however, the legislature amended the 1968 statute to limit the military service provision by requiring a “one year or more” interruption of employment before an officer could apply for an early pension. W.Va.Code 8-22-25(c) and 8-22-27 [1985],
In July 1977, Officer Mullett enlisted in the National Guard, and his enlistment entailed various weekend drills and summer camps until he retired from the police department. Although he admitted his National Guard service did not interrupt his police duties for a continuous year, Officer Mullett believed his guard duty allowed him an early pension when he applied for one in 1990.
The pension board twice denied Officer Mullett’s application for an early pension.16 The circuit court, however, granted Officer Mullett his early pension because it believed the Wagoner case compelled the application of the 1968 statute in effect at the time of the officer’s hire.
On appeal by the pension board, we discussed whether the officer could apply the provisions of the 1968 statute that allegedly entitled him to an early pension. After considering the facts, we decided he could not and held the 1986 legislation applied to his case because there was not “any vesting of rights on [Officer Mullett’s] behalf in 1985, the ... year [that the legislature made the amendments ].” 186 W.Va. at 493, 413 S.E.2d at 148.17 [Emphasis added]. We noted:
Until such time as Mr. Mullett was entitled pursuant to the applicable statute to apply for pension benefits, his rights were clearly not vested. [Emphasis added].
186 W.Va. at 494, 413 S.E.2d at 149 (citing, Fox, 148 W.Va. at 373, 135 S.E.2d at 264; accord Wagoner, 167 W.Va. at 146, 279 S.E.2d at 641 [“in a contributory pension plan, the pensioners’ rights vest when all the conditions entitling them thereto have been fulfilled.”])
Although the respondents agree that the petitioners may apply for pensions now, which they may collect when they reach age fifty, they argue our holding in Mullett limits vesting to retired — and not active — plan members. In support of this contention, they direct us to Syllabus points 2 and 3 of Mullett, where we stated:
When a municipal police officer retires and ceases to be a contributing member to a pension plan, his rights pursuant to such plan are vested and the pension contract becomes fully executed rather than execu-tory.
During the time period when a pension contract is merely executory with respect to a particular individual due to the fact that he/she is still an active, participating member, the Legislature may amend the plan provided that any amendments survive a test of reasonableness.
The respondents claim this above language clearly precludes , any vested pension interest of the petitioners. We now, upon careful reflection, disagree.
We must concede here that Mullett was one of those cases where a hard case made, at least, incomplete law. Officer Mullett was arguing for an utterly absurd result, namely that by reason of his weekend warrior status [337]*337he was entitled to the same military benefits as a person who had served a standard tour of duty in a regular, full-time armed force. Obviously, the legislature never intended such a result and in Mullett we simply found it more convenient to repair to the language of Fox to decide the case than to discuss legislative intent in the face of inartful draftsmanship. Now, however, we are squarely confronted with a case where: (1) state employees (2) accepted employment with West Virginia (3) under a compensation plan where a substantial part of their entire compensation was to be deferred and paid through a pension (4) the conditions for the vesting of which were clear and unambiguous and (5) (unlike Mullett) there was no inartful draftsmanship leading to a wholly irrational result so beyond any reasonable expectation that it amounted to a clerical error. Consequently, to the extent that anything in Mul-lett or Fox (which was also a hard case on the facts, given Officer Fox’s felony convictions) is inconsistent with this case, both Mullett and Fox axe overruled.
IV.
OUR HOLDING TODAY
When considering the constitutionality of legislative amendments to pension plans, an employee’s eligibility for a pension does not determine whether he or she has vested contract rights. Instead, the determination of an employee’s vested contract rights concerns whether the employee has sufficient years of service in the system that he or she can be considered to have relied substantially to his or her detriment on the existing pension benefits and contribution schedules. We must, however, stress that our holding here does not alter the applicable statutes controlling a state employee’s eligibility for a pension, itself. Until a public employee meets the relevant age and service requirements for collection of a pension, he or she may not receive a pension, and nothing in this opinion alters the existing procedure for reimbursing pension contributions into the plan upon a public employee’s voluntary or involuntary separation from state employment. What we are concerned with today is not the technical concept of “vest-ing,” but rather the conditions under which public employees have a property right not to have their pension system detrimentally altered that is protected under the contract clauses because of substantial detrimental reliance on the existing pension system.
In pension cases, then, there are two distinct issues of contract: (1) an employee’s contract right to collect a pension after statutory eligibility requirements have been met; and (2) the employee’s legitimate expectations, also contractual in nature, that the government will not detrimentally alter the pension scheme once the employee has spent sufficient time in the system to have substantially relied to his or her detriment. The first issue involves whether the employee has remained in government service for such a length of time that he or she can collect benefits; the second issue involves the employee’s reliance on promised government benefits after years of government service but before actual retirement age. Pension eligibility and reasonable expectations about the system’s continued benefits are entirely separate issues.
By meeting certain eligibility requirements, a public employee acquires a right to payment under a pension plan. For any employee not yet eligible for payment, this is a mere expectancy; if the public employee does not meet the age and service requirements for benefits, his or her participation in a state pension plan does not allow receipt of a pension. But this same participation does create an employee’s reliance interest in pension benefits. Consequently, an employee’s membership in a pension system and his or her forbearance in seeking other employment prevents the legislature from impairing the obligations of the pension contract once the employee has performed a substantial part of his or her end of the bargain and has substantially relied to his or her detriment.
Although participation in a government pension system and forbearance in seeking other employment create an employee’s contract right to pension benefits under art. Ill, § 4 of our Constitution, such participation does not create contract rights to [338]*338government employment. We must make clear, therefore, that entitlement to continued government employment continues to be controlled by civil service statutes, applicable regulations, the due process and equal protection clauses, the first amendment and other employment-related law. See, Adkins v. Miller, 187 W.Va. 774, 421 S.E.2d 682 (1992); Snyder v. Civil Serv. Commission, 160 W.Va. 762, 238 S.E.2d 842 (1977); Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507, 100 S.Ct. 1287, 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980); Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347, 96 S.Ct. 2673, 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976).
If an employee engages in misconduct during his or her public service, he or she may nevertheless forfeit rights to collect a pension later. Thus, insofar as Dodd holds that an employee’s misconduct results in a forfeiture of the entire pension, it is still good law because the requirement of honorable service (at least since 1976) has, been established in advance and has been made an explicit part of the entire bargain. Otherwise, if misconduct is not at issue, Dodd (and all other similar cases) no longer state the law when we consider legislative amendments to a government pension plan; thus, to the extent that Dodd and other cases are inconsistent with this opinion, they are overruled.
Other jurisdictions have reached similar results when considering the constitutionality of amendments to pension plans because the judges in these jurisdictions also conclude the deferred compensation embodied in a pension entitlement creates a reliance interest in the state employee that the law of contracts protects. See, Halpin v. Nebraska State Patrolmen’s Retirement System, 211 Neb. 892, 897-898, 320 N.W.2d 910, 913-914 (1982) (citing cases); Singer v. Topeka, 227 Kan. 356, 607 P.2d 467 (1980).18 Although we agree with the holdings of these cases, we must elaborate on the reasons for our rules to avoid possible misunderstanding.
Law enforcement is dangerous. Injuries and loss of life are inherent in the occupation. In order to protect the public as well as themselves, therefore, law enforcement officers must necessarily have certain characteristics. They must be agile, strong, flexible, resilient and have great stamina — all qualities associated with youth. Because the State understands this, the State seeks to recruit young persons for employment as state troopers. Until 1994, W.Va.Code 15-2-7(e) [1985] provided, in part, that “[e]ach applicant for appointment shall be a person not less than twenty-one nor more than thirty years of age, of sound constitution and good moral character; shall be required to pass such mental examination and meet other requirements as may be provided for in regulations promulgated by the cadet selection board; and shall be required to pass such physical examination as may be provided for in regulations promulgated by the retirement board: ...”19
When the legislature structures the state troopers’ pension system to allow for retirement before age fifty, the legislature encourages suitable candidates to forego other employment opportunities today for real pension benefits tomorrow.20 In practical [339]*339terms, the State’s promise results in the recruitment of many state troopers, who, although they may not attain the rank of Captain21, may nevertheless complete twenty years’ service and receive substantial retirement payments. The State’s employment system for state troopers, then, not only results in a smooth recruitment of troopers, but also resembles the compensation system of the armed forces of the United States. Employees join the ranks early, complete their service during their most productive years, and then leave the system. By providing pensions, the State clearly entices troopers to remain in the government’s employ, and it is the enticement that is at the heart of employees’ constitutionally protected contract right after substantial reliance not to have their own pension plan detrimentally altered.
If the State (or its political subdivisions) promise to defer salary benefits until a person’s retirement from State (or local) employment, and then promises to pay those deferred salary benefits in the form of a pension, the State (or its political subdivisions) cannot eliminate this expectancy without just compensation once an employee has substantially relied to his or her detriment. To permit otherwise would be tantamount to allowing the State (or its subdivisions) to steal a car an employee might have purchased had he or she not been required to allow part of the wage fund to be diverted to pension funding. The difference between a pension and the car lies only in whether the employee may enjoy the benefit today or must wait until tomorrow. Thus, when a public employee has devoted substantial service to the state that translates into substantial detrimental reliance, the State must provide just compensation for any pension expectancy it eliminates.
Today’s decision may, at first blush, appear harsh on legislatures and executives who are required to administer public employee pension funds and pay their benefits. The problem, however, is that both legislatures and executives in the past made then current promises to be fulfilled in the future by other legislatures and executives. It is a recurrent problem of government that today’s elected officials curry favor with constituents by promising benefits that must be delivered by tomorrow’s elected officials.
Unfortunately, the state troopers, secretaries, school service personnel, [340]*340teachers, highway workers, maintenance employees, assistant prosecuting attorneys and other ordinary state and local workers are not sophisticated politicians who expect their government to he to them. When, therefore, today’s legislature and today’s governor make those workers promises, those workers believe the promises and organize their Uves in the expectation that their government and their employer will treat them honorably. In these circumstances, the rules cannot be changed after employees have substantially relied to their detriment. The cynosure, then, of an employee’s W.Va. Const, art. Ill, § 4 contract right to a pension is not the employee’s or even the government’s contribution to the fund; rather, it is the government’s promise to pay. Heretofore, in Dad-isman, supra, we have emphasized the legislature’s obligation to fund pension systems on a sound actuarial basis. We are not administrators, however, and we can only articulate what the law is. It is for the governor and the legislature to enforce the law.
Because pensions are a lawful debt of the State, the proper remedy for any failure to pay a pension is a mandamus action against the state treasurer and auditor. Although the actuarial funding of the pension program may be an interesting issue for lawyers, it means nothing to lay persons who work for this State as troopers, secretaries and janitors and whose expertise is not in the law. Upon attaining eligibility, workers expect to collect their pensions, and their contracts do not condition these benefits upon actuarial soundness of the system. Consequently, the funding of any pension program is the legislature’s problem — not the state employees-’ — and once the legislature establishes a pension program, it must find a way to pay the pensions, at least to those persons who have substantially relied.
Of course, this is not to say that changes may not be made in pension systems with regard to new employees who have not yet joined the system and who have not yet relied to their detriment. Changes can be made with regard to employees with so few years of service that they cannot be said to have substantially relied to their detriment. Line drawing in this latter regard must be made on a case-by-case basis, but after ten years of state service detrimental reliance is presumed. Thus, our constitutional provision against the State’s impairment of obligations of contract, W.Va Const, art. Ill, § 4, means only that the government must keep its promises; art. Ill, § 4 does not mean or even imply that the government must make promises in the first place. Furthermore, to the extent that the government wishes to apportion future wage increases between immediate cash payments to existing workers and improved funding of pension systems, it may do so: No state or local employee has a right to a wage increase, and (as in the case before us) the State may ask workers to help make pension funds solvent by contributing to the funds new money given to them by the State for this purpose.22
As we noted earlier, under Wagoner, the legislature cannot “detrimentally alter” rights of vested retirees. However, in Mul-lett, we stated the Wagoner rule “does not automatically apply to amendments [that] affect the rights of non-retired employees.” 186 W.Va. at 494, 413 S.E.2d at 149. If an active employee did not qualify for a pension [341]*341when the legislature amended the plan, we formerly applied the “California rule”:
An employee’s vested [sic] contractual pension rights may be modified prior to retirement for the purpose of keeping a pension flexible to permit adjustments in accord with changing conditions and at the same time maintain the integrity of the sys-tem_ Such modifications must be reasonable, and it is for the courts to determine upon the facts of each case what constitutes a permissible change. To be sustained as reasonable, alterations of employees’ pension rights must bear some material relation to the theory of a pension system and its successful operation, and changes in a pension plan which result in disadvantages to employees should be accompanied by comparable new advantages.
186 W.Va. at 495, 413 S.E.2d at 150. [Citations omitted].
According to Mullett, “the key concern raised by both Wagoner and the “California rule” ... is disadvantage or detriment to the active members as a group rather than on an individual basis.” 186 W.Va. at 495, 413 S.E.2d at 150. Because all employees who contribute to a state pension fund and who rely substantially to their detriment on a specific contribution and benefits schedule have immediate legitimate expectations that rise to the level of constitutionally protected contract property rights, we overrule Mullett’s test of reasonableness for determining the constitutionality of legislative amendments to a pension system. By allowing the legislature to dimmish pension benefits, the Mullett test frustrates the employees’ reliance on the anticipated pensions that they legitimately expect to receive upon qualifying through years of service and age for benefits. We therefore find the Wagoner rule applies to the case here and we hold that the pension rights of all current plan members who have substantially relied cannot be detrimentally altered at all, and that any alterations to keep the trust fund solvent must be directed to the infusion of additional money. See, Syl.Pt. 3, Wagoner (“While the Legislature has the right to make reasonable alterations to the judicial pension fund, such alterations cannot impair the benefit level where there are extant statutorily-created inequities and special unfunded benefit provisions that affect the equal application of the law or the financial integrity or cost of the pension fund.”)
“Detrimentally alter” means the legislature cannot reduce the existing benefits (including such things as medical coverage) of the pension plan or raise the contribution level without giving the employee sufficient money to pay the higher contributions.23 Should the legislature seek to reduce certain advantages of a pension plan, it must offer other equal benefits in their place as just compensation. Thus, until an employee becomes eligible to draw a pension, his or her benefits can be determined on an actuarial basis, and until such time as the employee’s reliance is so strong as effectively to preclude all other options, the State may buy out the employee’s contract property rights. At some point, however, the worker has chosen to remain in public employment for such a substantial part of his or her life that the State can no longer purchase the employee’s pension without the acquiescence of the employee. At what point in an employee’s career it is no longer equitable for the State to buy back the employee’s contract rights on a sound actuarial basis without confounding the principles forbidding the impairment of contracts can be decided only on a case-by-case basis by the legislature and the courts. Of course, the legislature may always augment pension property rights. But the legislature cannot reduce a participating employee’s pension property rights once it establishes the system unless the employee acquiesces in the changes to the pension plan or unless the employee has so [342]*342few years in the system that he or she has Rot detrimentally relied on promised pension benefits.
V.
THE AMENDMENTS AT ISSUE
Turning to the case before us of the state troopers, we hold the petitioners clearly have property rights that cannot be withdrawn under the rules that we have explained because the petitioners are all state employees who have contributed into the fund and substantially relied to their detriment in investing more than half of their working lives with the State. When considering the constitutionality of the amendments under Wagoner's test as we have refined it here, therefore, we must determine whether the petitioners are offered any new advantages of equal or greater value to the plan’s old benefits.
The initial amendment requires all state troopers to increase their contributions to 9 percent of their pay by 1 July 1995 without any corollary increase in the retirement award itself.24 According to the respondents, the increased employee contributions are constitutional because (1) the Division must make greater contributions into the fund and (2) the legislature enacted other changes25 benefitting the state troopers, one of which included a $1,008 pay raise given to all state employees. Because our inquiry into the constitutionality of the amendments concerns the benefits that petitioners receive under the plan, how much the Division contributes to the fund cannot influence our analysis here. For this reason, we do not accept respondents’ first argument. We do, however, find the legislature’s other 1994 changes offer state troopers advantages of equal or greater value than the ones they expected under the former plan. Consequently, we find the initial amendment constitutional.
The legislature may increase a public employee’s salary contribution to a pension plan if it gives a corresponding raise in salary or other benefits that offsets the employee’s increased contribution to the system. To be constitutional under art. Ill, § 4, the additional salary or other benefits must at least cover the public employee’s extra contribution to the system. Here, the petitioners are required to contribute an additional 3 percent of their salaries by 1 July 1995; however, the petitioners have also received a $1,008 raise in salary, as well as other benefits that we discussed in footnote 24. Therefore, we find the petitioners have been extended benefits that offset their increased contribution to the pension plan.26,
[343]*343Under the next amendment (W.Va.Code 15-2-27(c)(2) [1994]), state troopers can no longer credit accrued, but unused annual leave and sick leave towards early collection of a pension before age fifty. According to respondents, despite the language of W.Va. Code 5-6-13(e), it was not the practice of either the old Public Safety Retirement Board or the Consolidated Public Retirement Board [“Board”] to allow state troopers to use annual and sick leave days at retirement in order to reach twenty-five years of service and thereby begin receiving pensions before becoming fifty. Instead, after the policy decision of the Board (discussed in footnote 4), the practice was allowed only between 25 January 1994 and 12 March 199427. The respondents also contend the practice of counting sick leave to allow increased payments did not begin until 1988, and, consequently, the petitioners enjoy no less advantage in this respect than they did six years ago.
Having examined the language of W.Va. Code 5-16-13(e) [1992], we find the provision does not allow state troopers to receive benefits before reaching age fifty. The provision simply entitles a retiree to collect additional money by using his or her accumulated, but unused annual and sick leave; it does not concern a state employee’s eligibility for a pension as its last line makes clear: “such credited service shall not be used in meeting initial eligibility for retirement criteria, but only as additional service credited in excess thereof.” Apparently, the Board misunderstood the clear use of the word “initial” that precludes troopers from receiving benefits before reaching age fifty. It is clear to us that “initial” serves to clarify the meaning of the first sentence regarding the use of annual and sick leave to allow larger, and not earlier, benefit payments.
Given our construction of W.Va.Code 5-16-13(e) [1992], we think the Board erroneously adopted its policy regarding troopers’ use of accrued, but unused annual and sick leave. We find the state troopers had no legal right even before the statutory amendment in this case to apply their accrued, but unused leave to allow payment of a pension before age fifty. This Court, therefore, holds the legislature did not impair this part of the contract and we hold that because W.Va.Code 15-2-27(c)(2) merely clarified but did not change existing law, it is constitutional.
The last amendment, W.Va.Code 15-2-27a [1994], reduces the petitioners’ retirement cost of living adjustment from 3.75 percent to 2 percent.28 The respondents do not argue otherwise; instead, given the 1994 actuarial valuation of the public safety pension system, the respondents argue that this amendment preserves the future solvency of the fund. They also assert that the petitioners have a fiduciary duty to the remaining beneficiaries of the fund under Dadisman. We disagree.
Contrary to respondents’ suggestion, this Court has never imposed a fiduciary duty upon the contributing members of a pension plan. Cf. Syl.Pt. 5, Dadisman (The PERS Trustees have the highest fiduciary duty to maintain the terms of the trust, as spelled out in the statute.) Requiring the petitioners to protect the future solvency of the pension system is an unconstitutional shifting of the state’s own burden. Consequently, we find W.Va.Code 15-2-27a [1994] an unconstitutional impairment of the state’s obligation of its contract but only to the extent that it reduces the petitioners’ cost-of-living adjustment. See, doctrine of the least intrusive remedy, Syl. pt. 2, Weaver v. Shaffer, 170 W.Va. 107, 290 S.E.2d 244 (1982). It is a close question whether the doctrine of the least intrusive remedy is appropriate here; however, we believe that on balance it probably best comports with legislative intent. However, in light of this litigation, the legislature may amend this section to remove benefits that it gave in the last session of the [344]*344legislature if, indeed, it was the intention of the legislature to tie those benefits inexorably to the reduction of the cost-of-living increase from 3.75 to 2 percent. Furthermore, the legislature may reduce the cost of living adjustment for all state troopers who have not yet substantially relied to their detriment.
Having read the actuarial studies submitted by respondents, this Court acknowledges the legitimacy of the respondents’ concern regarding the future solvency of the public safety pension system. Nevertheless, our holding here still allows the legislature to purchase pension rights of some active employees. Furthermore, the legislature may completely amend pension benefits as they involve persons who may someday in the future enter into a public safety employment contract with the state.29 In short, this Court holds the legislature simply cannot mess with the pension rights of state employees who have invested a substantial part of their working lives with West Virginia.
The reason that we have spoken at such length on the subject of government pensions is that increasingly courts are government’s preeminent institutional memory. American society has become increasingly volatile, and our social failures in the last twenty years have led to a popular dissatisfaction that translates into pendulum-like changes in elected personnel at the polls. This is democracy and certainly nothing to be decried. But courts, with their life tenure (federal), long elected terms (West Virginia), or Missouri plan retention systems (many other states) are deliberately designed to provide continuity and memory.
Scores of thousands of little people have organized their lives around government pensions, and while in a democracy government has an opportunity for a new life and new direction every four years, these little people do not. While what was promised thirty years ago may not be of much concern to modernists elected to change the mix of government services, cut taxes, or instantiate a new morality, what was promised thirty years ago forms the core of life for those who once upon a time believed their elected leaders.
Because we find W.Va.Code 15-2-26 [1994] (the increased contribution provision) and 15-2-27(c)(2) [1994] (the provision eliminating use of annual and sick leave to allow earlier benefits) [1994] constitutional, we deny petitioners relief with regard to these two provisions. However, to the extent that W.Va.Code 15-2~27a [1994] (the provision reducing petitioners’ cost-of-living adjustment) impairs the obligations of contract under W.Va. Const. Article III, § 4, we grant a writ of mandamus ordering respondents to forbear in implementing that part of the amendment at issue here, and we order the respondents to reinstate the previous 3.75 percent annuity adjustment to which the petitioners were entitled before 1994.
Writ granted as moulded.
BROTHERTON, J., did not participate.
MILLER, Retired Justice sitting by temporary assignment, concurs in part, and dissents in part.