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 ...
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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.
LOL! SHITCAGO!
“....could potentially leave Chicagoans on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars...”
I hope so...good and HARD!
The Obamas leave a pile of stank behind everywhere they go.
Did the agreement specify a date and a ring?
“any sane place (NOT Chicago) “
Are you suggesting it would be cheaper in Indonesia, or Pakistan, or Kenya?
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.
But they will come up with some way to blame Trump and Republicans when the scheme goes belly up.
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.
Looks like an Orc stronghold.
Pull the permits until the endowment is funded.
.
In the mean time the Obama library has given $2M to the Tides Foundation.
Oh, that’s hideous.
Looks like a prison.
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