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Lake County Gazette

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Former state school employee Sowers paid in $198K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.5M in retirement

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Former state school employee Mary Sowers, who retired in July 2016, saved $197,536 toward a pension over 26 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Sowers would collect as much as $3.5 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Lake County Gazette.

The projection assumes Sowers received $73,488 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Sowers will have already received $227,145 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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