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Kankakee Times

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Former state school employee Merrill paid in $170K to teachers' pension fund, could collect $3.61M in retirement

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Former state school employee Rusti Merrill, who retired in June 2017, saved $170,027 toward a pension over 28 years working for public schools, Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Merrill would collect as much as $3.61 million, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Kankakee Times.

The projection assumes Merrill received $75,852 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Merrill will have already received $234,452 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the teachers' pension fund.

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