Illinois has an extremely generous pension plan -— they put in double whatever the employee puts in. I have a cousin who is retired and benefiting from it, plus a dil who, if its still paying out, will benefit from it in several years. Both of these women are all about working hard and producing high quality work; no slouching off with them. The one, A health department restaurant inspector, was actually told to ease up, or there wouldn’t be any restaurants open at all. My daughter in law has given many hours of her own time to counseling messed up high schoolers, once spending 3 hours after school had ended, to stay with a suicidal girl, until her parents could be reached, and provisions for hospitalization had all been coordinated and set up. Both of these women deserve their pension; they have no control how much the State agrees to pay.
It is so wonderful that Illinois taxpayers are forced to be so generous to your family.