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Sangamon Sun

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Former state school employee Garza paid in $81K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $1.08M in retirement

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Former state school employee Gretchen Garza, who retired in May 2018, saved $80,759 toward a pension over 17 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Garza would collect as much as $1.08 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Sangamon Sun.

The projection assumes Garza received $22,666 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 4 years of retirement, Garza will have already received $94,825 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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