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Obama Presidential Center deposits just $1M into $470M reserve fund aimed to protect taxpayers
Fox News ^ | 9/27/25 | Michael Dorgan

Posted on 09/27/2025 10:04:04 AM PDT by Libloather

When the Obama Foundation snagged a sweetheart deal to build its beleaguered Obama Presidential Center on a Chicago public park, it pledged to create a $470 million reserve fund to spare taxpayers should the project ever go belly up.

But new tax filings show the foundation has only deposited $1 million into the fund and has not added to it in years, with critics saying the empty promise could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Under its agreement with the city, the foundation was required to create the fund, known as an endowment, in order to take control of the sprawling 19.3-acre section of Jackson Park — often described as Chicago’s Central Park equivalent — where the complex is now slowly rising.

The foundation ultimately secured the public land for just $10 in 2018, under a 99-year deal.

But when former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama turned the sod at the site in September 2021, just $1 million — or 0.21% of the pledged funds — had been deposited into the endowment, and that figure has remained unchanged ever since.

With construction progressing at a snail’s pace and costs ballooning from an original estimate of $330 million to at least $850 million, the lack of progress on the promised endowment has fueled fears the Obama Presidential Center could leave taxpayers holding the can if finances spiral into the red.

It comes as the Obama Foundation’s latest tax return shows its finances under strain with revenue swinging wildly year to year, fundraising shortfalls and unfulfilled donor pledges.

On news that the endowment has largely remained unfunded, Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi slammed the project as an "abomination" while blasting Democrats for potentially exposing taxpayers with the deal.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; History; Local News
KEYWORDS: chicago; corruption; crimecorruption; democratcorruption; democratparty; deposits; endowment; fraud; fund; funding; graft; hussein; library; obama; obungles; ripoff; taxpayers

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To: Libloather

Leftists are axiomatically incapable of doing anything without grift.

If they attempted this any sane place (NOT Chicago) their failure to pony up the reserve $ would trigger a total halt.

If this continued is a sane state (not IL) the management and contractors would be sued, fined, put out of business and possibly jailed for fraud.

Instead they burned money for years and everyone involved knew full well they’d just toss the cost on the taxpayer.


21 posted on 09/27/2025 11:22:58 AM PDT by No.6
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To: Libloather

LOL! SHITCAGO!


22 posted on 09/27/2025 11:39:36 AM PDT by Democrat = party of treason
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To: Libloather

“....could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars...”

I hope so...good and HARD!


23 posted on 09/27/2025 12:09:30 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: sjmjax

The Obamas leave a pile of stank behind everywhere they go.


24 posted on 09/27/2025 12:13:07 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Libloather

Did the agreement specify a date and a ring?


25 posted on 09/27/2025 12:17:01 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: No.6

“any sane place (NOT Chicago) “

Are you suggesting it would be cheaper in Indonesia, or Pakistan, or Kenya?


26 posted on 09/27/2025 12:20:46 PM PDT by spintreebob
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To: Libloather

Tear it down now. Finally, the truths about Obama are coming out, and those truths are as ugly as the monstrosity being built in a Chicago city park.


27 posted on 09/27/2025 12:26:36 PM PDT by CdMGuy
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To: PGR88
Beautiful, bucolic, historic Jackson Park, site of !893 World's Fair and a Rembrandt of architecture and landscape design bollixed by the half black half white half wit.


28 posted on 09/27/2025 12:54:39 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Bonemaker
They're lucky Jack Lew wasn't president:


29 posted on 09/27/2025 1:05:04 PM PDT by aspasia
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To: Libloather
"The offices of Mayor Brandon Johnson, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Party of Illinois did not respond to requests for comment."
LOL I'm sure they didn't.

But they will come up with some way to blame Trump and Republicans when the scheme goes belly up.

30 posted on 09/27/2025 1:06:59 PM PDT by citizen (A transgender male competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: Libloather

No problem. Pritzker can levy an Illinois tax for the Obama Presidential library abomination ... what is another 800 million or billion to a rich state like Illinois.


31 posted on 09/27/2025 1:10:42 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Trump has arrived and it is awesome to have a real President.)
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To: Bonemaker

Looks like an Orc stronghold.


32 posted on 09/27/2025 1:14:56 PM PDT by citizen (A transgender male competing against women may be male, but he's no man.)
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To: citizen
"Looks like an Orc stronghold."

Looks like the fireplace and chimney that remain after the house burns down.
33 posted on 09/27/2025 2:08:37 PM PDT by clearcarbon (Fraudulent elections have consequences.)
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To: Libloather

Pull the permits until the endowment is funded.


34 posted on 09/27/2025 2:12:20 PM PDT by meatloaf
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To: citizen
At least these were useful:


35 posted on 09/27/2025 3:19:31 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: Bonemaker

.


36 posted on 09/27/2025 3:33:18 PM PDT by LouAvul (1 John 2:22: Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist.)
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To: Libloather

In the mean time the Obama library has given $2M to the Tides Foundation.


37 posted on 09/27/2025 3:44:31 PM PDT by The Free Engineer
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To: MtnClimber
It looks like some overgrown WWII blockhouse.


38 posted on 09/27/2025 3:46:51 PM PDT by x
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To: Bonemaker

Oh, that’s hideous.


39 posted on 09/27/2025 3:52:47 PM PDT by Allegra (Thank you for your attention to this matter. )
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To: albie

Looks like a prison.


40 posted on 09/27/2025 4:46:05 PM PDT by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. ~ Psalm 33:12)
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