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North Cook News

Friday, July 4, 2025

Former state school employee Heffner paid in $165K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $4.03M in retirement

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Former state school employee Karen Heffner, who retired in June 2017, saved $164,636 toward a pension over 37 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Heffner would collect as much as $4.03 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes North Cook News.

The projection assumes Heffner received $84,739 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 2 years of retirement, Heffner will have already received $172,020 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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