LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge.
The Missouri Prosecuting Attorneys and Circuit Attorneys Retirement System (“PACARS”) filed a petition for writ of mandamus to compel payment by Barton County of the pension contributions required from it under section 56.807, RSMo Supp.1995. Barton County quit paying pension contributions on behalf of its prosecutors beginning in 2002, when the Missouri Department of Social Services ceased reimbursing it for those contributions. The trial court found that section 56.807 violates what is commonly known as the “Hancock Amendment” to the Missouri Constitution, Mo. Const., ÁRt. X, § 21, and refused to require Barton County to make the payments mandated by that section. PACARS appeals.
While the Hancock Amendment generally bars the State from mandating that counties pay for a new activity or service or for an increased level of activity or service without a state appropriation to pay for that new or increased mandate, article VI, section 11 of the Missouri Constitution specifically provides that an increase in the “compensation of county officers” does not constitute a new or increased level of a service or activity. Such compensation, as a result, is not within the scope of the Hancock Amendment. For the reasons set out below, this Court finds that pension contributions are included within the phrase “compensation of county officers” as used in article VI, section 11. Therefore, the trial court erred in finding that the Hancock Amendment invalidates section 56.807 to the extent it requires counties to pay pension contributions for its prosecutors. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court is reversed, and the cause is remanded.
/. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
This case was submitted on stipulated facts. In 1989, the legislature enacted the Prosecuting Attorneys’ and Circuit Attorneys’ Retirement Fund (commonly referred to as the PACARS statutes). §§ 56.800-56.840, RSMo Supp.1990. As relevant here, these statutes authorize the creation of a retirement fund for prosecutors and circuit attorneys.
As initially enacted, section 56.807 provided for counties to receive “incentive funds” equal to the amount they were required to pay into PACARS. § 56.807.1. But in 1995, the legislature amended the PACARS statutes by removing the provisions entitling counties to reimbursement for county contributions. It instead provided, “The funds for prosecuting attorneys and circuit attorneys provided for in subsection 2 of this section shall be paid from county or city funds.” § 56.807.1, RSMo Supp.1997.1
Barton County began making contributions on behalf of its prosecutors to PA-CARS from the time it came into being in 1989. In August 1995, Barton County’s treasurer was provided with written notice [740]*740that, as a result of the 1995 amendments to the PACARS statutes, incentive payments no longer would be required to be made to reimburse the county for its contributions to PACARS. Despite this written notice, from 1989 until January 2002, it appears that Barton County received incentive payments from the Department of Social Services that it specifically credited as contribution payments and forwarded to PACARS. Beginning in January 2002, however, the department took the action presaged in its 1995 letter and ceased making incentive payments reimbursing Barton County for its PACARS contributions. The Barton County Commission then voted to discontinue participation in PACARS.
In August 2002, PACARS sent a letter to Barton County demanding that it make the pension contribution payments, as required by section 56.807.1. The county refused, stating it believed that, to the extent PACARS required it to make pension contributions without reimbursement from the state, the statute violated the Hancock Amendment. As relevant here, the latter prohibits the state from requiring any “new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service beyond that required by existing law ... unless a state appropriation is made and disbursed to pay the county or other political subdivision for any increased costs.” Mo. Const., Art. X, § 21.
In November 2006, PACARS filed a petition for writ of mandamus against Barton County and County Commissioners Gerry Miller, John Stockdale and Dennis Wilson in which it requested that the court compel Barton County to make the pension contributions required by section 56.807. Bonda Rawlings, a resident of Barton County, intervened as a taxpayer defendant.2 The trial court found that section 56.807 violates the Hancock Amendment to the extent it mandates that Barton County contribute to PACARS without receiving reimbursement from the State. It thereby rejected PACARS’s argument that article VI, section 11 of the Missouri Constitution specifically provides that increases in the compensation of county officials does not constitute a new or increased level of a service or activity as barred under the Hancock Amendment. PACARS appeals. Mo. Const., ART. V, § 3.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
As the case was submitted on stipulated facts, “ ‘the only question before this court is whether the trial court drew the proper legal conclusions from the facts stipulated.’ ” Schroeder v. Horack, 592 S.W.2d 742, 744 (Mo. banc 1979), quoting Drysdale v. Cornerstone Bank, 562 S.W.2d 182, 183 (Mo.App.1978). Therefore, as the decision below was based on the interpretation of section 56.807 and the Missouri Constitution, this Court’s review is de novo. Gash v. Lafayette County, 245 S.W.3d 229, 231 (Mo. banc 2008); Akers v. City of Oak Grove, 246 S.W.3d 916, 919 (Mo. banc 2008). “This Court’s review begins with the recognition that all statutes are ‘presumed to be constitutional and will not be held unconstitutional unless [they] clearly and undoubtedly contravene[ ] the constitution.’ ” Mo. Prosecuting Attorneys & Circuit Attorneys Ret. Sys. v. Pemiscot County, 256 S.W.3d 98, [741]*741102 (Mo. banc 2008) (alterations in original), quoting United C.O.D. v. State, 150 S.W.3d 311, 313 (Mo. banc 2004). “Courts will enforce a statute unless it plainly and palpably affronts fundamental law embodied in the constitution.” United C.O.D., 150 S.W.3d at 313. “Doubts will be resolved in favor of the constitutionality of the statute.” Pemiscot County, 256 S.W.3d at 102.
Ill PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS ARE INCLUDED WITHIN ARTICLE VI, SECTION 11
In Boone County v. State, 631 S.W.2d 321, 326 (Mo. banc 1982), this Court held that a state statute requiring counties to increase the salary of county clerks without state funding violated the Hancock Amendment. The principle underlying Boone County is that the Hancock Amendment generally prohibits the state from increasing a county’s financial obligations to county employees without state reimbursement. In response to Boone County, article VI, section 11 of the Missouri Constitution was amended in 1986 to state in pertinent part:
A law which would authorize an increase in the compensation of county officers shall not be construed as requiring a new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service within the meaning of this constitution.
Mo. Const., ART. VI, § 11 (emphasis added). This constitutional provision, as amended in 1986, therefore provides an exception to the Hancock Amendment for laws that authorize “an increase in the compensation of county officers.” Id. Such increases in compensation can be mandated devoid of state reimbursement without running afoul of the Hancock Amendment.
The dispositive issue on appeal is whether pension contributions are encompassed within the phrase “compensation of county officers” as used in article VI, section 11. If the phrase “compensation of county officers” includes pension contributions as well as salaries and other forms of remuneration to county officers, then section 56.807 does not violate the Hancock Amendment because article VI, section 11 provides an exception to the Hancock Amendment for the payment of all such compensation. Conversely, if the phrase “compensation of county officers” as used in article VI, section 11 does not include pension contributions, then mandating that counties pay such contributions violates the Hancock Amendment.
Article VI, section 11 does not define the phrase “compensation of county officers,” and, in the absence of such clarity, courts must turn to rules of construction to determine meaning. Boone County sets out a clear statement of the principles governing construction of a constitutional provision:
Rules applicable to constitutional construction are the same as those applied to statutory construction, except that the former are given a broader construction, due to their more permanent character. State ex inf. Martin v. City of Independence, 518 S.W.2d 63, 65 (Mo.1974). In determining the meaning of a constitutional provision the court must first undertake to ascribe to the words the meaning which the people understood them to have when the provision was adopted. State ex inf. Danforth v. Cason, 507 S.W.2d 405, 408 (Mo. banc 1973).
631 S.W.2d at 324. As Boone County further explains:
The meaning conveyed to the voters is presumptively equated with the ordinary and usual meaning given thereto. Id. at 409. The ordinary, usual and commonly understood meaning is, in turn, derived from the dictionary. Id., Accord, Con[742]*742cerned Parents v. Caruthersville School District, 548 S.W.2d 554 (Mo. banc 1977); State ex rel. Curators of the University of Missouri v. Neill, 397 S.W.2d 666 (Mo. banc 1966); Rathjen v. Reorganized School District R-II of Shelby County, 365 Mo. 518, 284 S.W.2d 516 (1955). The grammatical order and selection of the associated words as arranged by the drafters is also indicative of the natural significance of the words employed. State ex inf Danfmih v. Cason, supra; O’Malley v. Continental Life Insurance, 335 Mo. 1115, 75 S.W.2d 837 (1934). To this extent the intent of the amendment’s drafters is influential. Finally, due regard is given to the primary objectives of the provision in issue as viewed in harmony with all related provisions, considered as a whole. State ex inf. Martin v. City of Independence, 518 S.W.2d at 65.
Id. Therefore, when words are not used in a technical sense, they “must be given their plain or ordinary meaning unless such construction will defeat the manifest intent of the constitutional provision.” Ra-thjen v. Reorganized Sch. Dist. R-II of Shelby County, 365 Mo. 518, 284 S.W.2d 516, 523 (1955). And courts presume every word in a statute has meaning. Civil Serv. Comm’n of City of St. Louis v. Members of Bd. of Aldermen, 92 S.W.3d 785, 788 (Mo. banc 2003).
Further, the phrase under consideration must be evaluated in light of the context in which it is used. This Court long has recognized that a word may have a different meaning depending on the statute or constitutional provision in which it appears:
The fact that a word, term or phrase in a different context and under different circumstances may have a changed meaning is well demonstrated by the ruling in Toime v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 38 S.Ct. 158,159, 62 L.Ed. 372 [ (1918) ], wherein Mr. Justice Holmes stated: ‘But it is not necessarily true that income means the same thing in the Constitution and the Act. A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and the time in which it is used.’
Rathjen, 284 S.W.2d at 522.
Context and reference to common usage is particularly important in interpreting words such as “compensation” and “pension,” which can have quite varied meanings in different contexts. Accordingly, while one definition of “compensation” is “payment for value received or services rendered,” WebsteR’s Third New International Dictionary 463 (1993), the word also can have such different meanings as recompense, payment for injuries as in “worker’s compensation,” rendering equal, making good or counterbalancing, moral or spiritual reward, and so forth. Id. It also can be given the broad meaning of a “return for a benefit conferred or promised, that is, a consideration ... a remuneration for services, whether in the form of a fixed salary, fees, commissions, or perquisites of whatever character ... ”. Balentine’s Law DictionaRY 233 (3d ed. 1969). Its synonyms include “allowance,” “earnings” “reimbursement” and “salary.” Roget’s Thesaurus 161 (1992).3 “Pension” sometimes is referred to by the legal term [743]*743“deferred compensation,” which Black’s defines as “compensation that will be taxed when received and not when earned.” Blaok’s Law Dictionary 421 (1991). Some additional synonyms of pension include, but are not limited to: “allowance;” “payment” and “premium.” Roget’s Thesaurus 617. Similarly, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2568 (1993), defines the term “wage ” as “a pledge or payment of [usually] monetary remuneration by an employer [especially] for labor or services [usually] according to contract and on an hourly, daily or piecework basis and often including bonuses, commission, and amounts paid by the employer for insurance, pension, hospitalization, and other benefits [.] ” Id. (emphasis added), quoted in Miles v. Lear Corp., 259 S.W.3d 64, 75 (Mo.App.2008) (separate opinion of Odenwald, J.) (alterations in original) (emphasis added).
Missouri courts also have dealt with the meaning of the term “compensation” in the context of dividing pension benefits in a dissolution proceeding. These cases hold that a pension benefit “is not earned on the last day of employment prior to retirement, but ‘is a form of deferred compensation which is attributable to the entire period in which it was accumulated.’ ” Kuchta v. Kuchta, 636 S.W.2d 663, 665 (Mo. banc 1982), quoting Shill v. Shill, 100 Idaho 433, 599 P.2d 1004, 1007 (1979). For that reason, a worker is considered to have earned a ratable proportion of his or her pension as that person works, so that if a spouse was married for one-half of his or her working life, the former spouse would be entitled to a proportionate share of one-half of the pension benefits. See, e.g., Redlinger v. Redlinger, 111 S.W.3d 413, 415 (Mo.App.2003).
In other words, pension benefits are a form of marital property just like other compensation and property, for they are “a form of deferred compensation funded by money earned during the parties’ marriage.” In re Marriage of Cranor, 78 S.W.3d 150, 155 (Mo.App.2002); accord, Coffman v. Coffman, 215 S.W.3d 309 (Mo.App.2007).
As is evident, the word “compensation” is a generic term that can be used in different senses in different contexts. While the fundamental meaning of the term—remuneration given to one for his or her work—remains constant, there is no single definition given to what types of remuneration are included in the term in the various provisions in which it is used in the Missouri Constitution.4 Any particular constitutional or statutory provision must be examined to determine whether the legislature in drafting the referendum language, and the voters in adopting language by referendum or initiative, used it in a different sense than that given it in other sections of the constitution, whether because the common understanding of the term has changed over time or because it is used in a different context or given a particularized meaning.
Here, the relevant constitutional provision uses “compensation” in the context of a provision addressing “compensation of county officers.” The ultimate issue before this Court is whether it permits the legislature to require a county to make pension contributions on behalf of its prosecuting attorneys as part of their remuneration for the performance of their official duties. As is evidenced by the treatment of such contributions as deferred compen[744]*744sation and a form of marital property subject to division by the court in a dissolution action (discussed above), the right to such pension contributions is earned as the prosecutor works each day, although the contributions actually are paid out at a later date. The solution to this ultimate issue, therefore, depends on the answer to a narrow question now before this Court: Whether the voters, in adopting article VI, section 11 in 1989, intended to use the term “compensation of county officers” in the narrow sense of immediately paid earnings or in the broader sense of all payments earned for services rendered even if payable at a later date, thereby including pension contributions.
The Missouri Constitution historically dealt with public retirement systems for public employees of political subdivisions as separate from other compensation to such employees. Therefore, while payment of salaries of employees of political subdivisions always has been allowed, the payment of pension benefits to county employees was not always permitted. For example, in State ex rel. Heaven v. Ziegenhein, 144 Mo. 283, 45 S.W. 1099 (1898), a retired police officer sought to enforce his statutory right to pension benefits. The retired officer argued that the pension payments were not a grant of public money in aid of individuals but, instead, were a part of his compensation for police work. The Court rejected this argument because it found a pension benefit was not part of an officer’s “salary.” It said the officer’s salary was his entire “proper compensation” for his official duties because the 1875 constitution then in effect stated, “the general assembly shall have no power to authorize any county, city, town or township or other political subdivision of the state now existing, or that may hereafter be established, to grant public money in aid of or to any individual, association or corporation whatsoever.” Id. at 1099-1100. The court further found that (unlike today, as is evident from the dissolution cases discussed above) a pension benefit was not considered to have been earned at the time of the work, but only later, upon retirement. Therefore, a pension benefit could not be a part of the officer’s salary, and a salary was all that the constitution permitted as compensation to the officer. Id.
By 1917, this Court had interpreted the term “compensation” far more broadly. State ex rel. Emmons v. Farmer, 271 Mo. 306, 196 S.W. 1106 (1917), concerned a statute providing that clerks of the circuit courts henceforth were to be paid by salary rather than by fee. The question was whether this was a change in the method of compensation of the clerks. The Court found it was not, for “the language of the Constitution includes both fees and salary under the comprehensive term ‘compensation’ as witness this language: ‘The compensation or fees of no state, county or municipal officer shall be increased during the term of office.’ ” Id. at 1108, quoting, Mo. Const., Art. XTV, § 8 (1875). Emmons then held that under this constitutional provision:
Clearly fees are not salary; so if the provision of the section quoted supra includes salary at all — and no one would be so bold as to deny that it does — then the word “compensation’’ is the generic term, and includes, as used in the above provision of the Constitution, salary, fees, pay, remuneration for official services performed, in whatever form or manner or at whatsoever periods the same may be paid.
Id. (emphasis added). Accordingly, Em-mons held that the term “compensation” in the then-existing constitutional provision concerning circuit clerks was used in an all-encompassing sense, that both a fee and a salary are forms of compensation, [745]*745and that a change from a fee-based to a salary-based system was not a change in the method of compensation but rather a change in the method of payment of that compensation. Id.
Of course, at the time Emmons and Ziegenhein were decided, political subdivisions were not authorized to make pension contributions or other forms of deferred compensation to their officers or employees. But that changed in 1966, when the voters embraced pensions for political subdivision employees and officers by adopting article VI, section 25, which states in relevant part:
[T]hat the general assembly may authorize any county, city or other political corporation or subdivision to provide for the retirement or pensioning of its officers and employees ... 5
After 1966, therefore, such pensions for employees of counties and other political subdivisions were permissible. As Emmons noted, “ ‘compensation’ is the generic term, and includes, as used in the above provision of the Constitution, salary, fees, pay, remuneration for official services performed, in whatever form or manner or at whatsoever periods the same may be paid.” 196 S.W. at 1108 (emphasis added). This meant that from that point forward, while there was no requirement to include pension contributions within the term “compensation” in subsequent constitutional and statutory provisions concerning such political subdivisions, neither was there any longer a bar to their inclusion, as was the case at the time Ziegenhein was decided.
No new constitutional provision affecting compensation or pensions of employees of political subdivisions was enacted between the 1966 adoption of article VI, section 25, permitting political subdivisions to pay pensions to their employees, and this Court’s 1982 decision in Boone County. That decision concerned only whether a state statute required counties to increase the salaries of a county clerk without violating the Hancock Amendment. It held that such a violation had occurred because the increase in salary was an increase in an activity or service which a county could not be mandated to pay. Boone County, 681 S.W.2d at 826.
As noted earlier, in response to that 1982 ruling in Boone County, the legislature approved submission of a constitutional amendment to the voters that provided in pertinent part that “a law which would authorize an increase in the compensation of county officers shall not be construed as requiring a new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service within the meaning of this constitution.” Mo. Const., ART. Vi, § 11 (emphasis added). This amendment did not permit just the increase in salary of county clerks — the only issue addressed in Boone County — but the increase in compensation of all county officers. But it did not define what was included in the phrase “compensation of county officers,” resulting in the present disagreement.
In 1989, three years after the passage of article VI, section 11 excepting compensation of county officers from the Hancock Amendment, the legislature adopted the PACARS statutes authorizing the creation of a retirement fund for prosecutors and circuit attorneys and, as amended in 1995, requiring a county to make pension contributions regardless of reimbursement. By enacting PACARS, the legislature thereby [746]*746interpreted article VI, section ll’s statement that an increase in compensation to county officers shall not be a violation of the Hancock Amendment to permit it to pass a statute requiring counties to pay or increase pensions for such officers without violating that amendment.
While this Court does not conclude lightly that the voters intended to expand the meaning of the words “compensation of county officers” beyond the meaning they would have had prior to the time that article VI, section 25 first authorized the payment of pensions to county officers, the language and context of the passage of article VI, section 11 leads to no other conclusion. The fact that article VI, section 11 authorized an increase in the “compensation of county officers” rather than the salary of county clerks supports the conclusion that it was intended to do more than reverse Boone County’s narrow holding. Had the latter been its intent, the amended provision would have stated “a law which would authorize an increase in the salary of county clerks shall not be construed as requiring a new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service within the meaning of this constitution.” It was written far more broadly, however, and authorized laws that require “an increase in the compensation of county officers ” (emphasis added).
This Court presumes that the decision to approve the phrase “compensation of county officers” was intentional, and it would be inconsistent with our rules of construction to interpret that amendment as if it authorized only an increase in “salary” or immediately payable earnings. Civil Serv. Comm’n, 92 S.W.3d at 788 (courts presume every word in a statute [or constitution] has meaning). Moreover, as noted, under the principles set out in Emmons, the word “compensation” if used in the generic sense may include “salary, fees, pay, remuneration for official services performed, in whatever form or manner or at whatsoever periods the same may be paid:” 196 S.W. at 1108.
This still begs the question whether the fact that section 11 clearly included more than salary necessarily means it includes pension benefits. In support of the conclusion that it does is Sihnhold, v. Mo. State Employees’ Ret. Sys., 248 S.W.3d 596 (Mo. banc 2008). In that case, a former administrative law judge (“ALJ”) whose employment had terminated in 1989 sued for a declaratory judgment that he was entitled to AXJ retirement benefits at the age 62 because in 1999 the legislature changed the law and permitted AJLJ retirement benefits to vest at age 62 rather than age 65. Id. at 597. This Court held that to award the plaintiff retirement benefits from age 62 onward would violate article III, section 38(a) and 39(3) because doing so would be to grant extra compensation to a public officer, stating:
The rationale of the Cleveland and Police Retirement System cases demonstrates that a retroactive award of three years of extra pension benefits to Mr. Sihnhold would be unconstitutional. When Mr. Sihnhold’s employment terminated in 1989, section 287.815 provided that he would become eligible for benefits at the age of sixty-five. If the 1999 amendment is applied and Mr. Sihnhold is deemed eligible for benefits at age sixty-two, he would obtain three extra years of compensation to which he was not entitled at the time he rendered his services. Consequently, the circuit court was correct to hold that application of the amended version of section 287.815 to Mr. Sihnhold would constitute a grant of extra compensation in violation of article III, sections 38(a) and 39(3).
Id. at 598 (emphasis added).
Other Missouri cases that have interpreted the word “compensation” as not [747]*747including pension benefits have done so because the legislature specifically indicated its intent to exclude such benefits from the sweep of that potentially broad term. In Bauer v. City of Grandview, 138 S.W.3d 810, 811-12 (Mo.App.2004), therefore, two current and two former city employees sought a declaratory judgment that Grand-view’s matching contributions to its local employee retirement fund are “compensation” as defined by section 70.600(8). While that statute defines “compensation” broadly as “the remuneration paid an employee by a political subdivision ... for personal services rendered by the employee for the political subdivision,” it also states that in “determining compensation [to be reported] no consideration shall be given to: ... (b) Employer contributions to any employee benefit plan or trust ...Id. at 813 (emphasis in original). Such an exclusion would have been unnecessary unless the legislature had believed that contributions to the retirement fund otherwise might be interpreted to be within the phrase “compensation” as used in relation to local government employees.
Similarly, Civil Serv. Comm’% held that “compensation” as used in the city charter regarding the St. Louis Police Department “includes ‘salary, wages, fees, allowances, and all other forms of valuable consideration 92 S.W.3d at 788. But the Court rejected the argument that sick pay transferred into a retirement fund is a form of valuable consideration, and, therefore, is compensation because it found that the statute specifically set up a separate subsection dealing with retirement benefits, separate and apart from other types of compensation. Id6
IV. CONCLUSION
In sum, article VI, section 11 specifically and broadly refers to all “compensation of county officers” even though Boone County dealt only with salaries of county clerks.7 Further, this Court previously has recognized that compensation can be used in a broad sense to mean all remuneration earned for service and that pension benefits are a form of deferred compensation or earnings in Missouri’s dissolution cases, and this Court and the court of appeals have recognized that the word “compensation” may include pension benefits if those benefits are not excluded by the statute in question.
In light of the purpose of amending article VI, section 11 to permit the increase in “compensation of county officers” without limitation in regard to either the type of compensation or the type of officer involved, the Court concludes that article VI, section 11 includes within its scope contributions to pension funds on behalf of county prosecutors and circuit attorneys. Section 56.807 unequivocally requires counties to provide pension contributions to these county officers. Accordingly, the trial court erred in holding that section 56.807 violates the Hancock Amendment and in holding that defendants were not required to make pension contributions to PACARS. The judgment is reversed, and the case remanded.
[748]*748PRICE, C.J., and BRECKENRIDGE, J., concur.
WOLFF, J., concurs in separation opinion filed.
TEITELMAN, J., dissents in separation opinion filed; RUSSELL and FISCHER, JJ., concur in opinion of TEITELMAN, J.