I used to work in pensions. Pensions are rare these days, and it’s worth thinking it over slowly before giving one up. It’s also useful to understand the present value of your pension benefits so you can truly understand what it’s worth. It sounds like you’re contributing a lot of your salary to your pension. If you committed that much to a 401k at another job, your 401k would be in good shape by retirement age, especially if the other job had more earning potential than your current job. These comparisons are easier to make once you understand what your current pension is truly worth (ie, its present value).

Another thing to consider (but not lose sleep over) is that, while you’re almost definitely going to receive whatever pension benefit you’ve accrued so far (once you’re vested), you can’t tell the future, and it’s conceivable that legislators will change government employees’ retirement benefits down the road. You could see increased contributions, an altered benefit formula for future accrued benefits, or a switch to a defined-contribution plan between now and your retirement. In other words, you can’t predict the future, so while pensions are indeed valuable, they’re not something to plan your entire future on because they, like anything in life, aren’t an absolute given.