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2025-09-28 -Short Attention Span Theater-
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Obama Presidential Center-huge cost over-runs, years behind schedule
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Well after all, it is Chicago.
[FoxNews] The Obama Foundation was required to create the fund in order to take control of a sprawling 19.3-acre section of a public park
When the Obama Foundation snagged a sweetheart deal to build its beleaguered Obama Presidential Center in 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, to take control of a 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.
SCHOLAR SOUNDS ALARM
Richard Epstein, a University of Chicago law professor emeritus and a New York University law professor, has raised concerns about the endowment for years and advised the local nonprofit Protect Our Parks with legal challenges to try to stop the Obama Center’s construction.
Epstein argues the foundation’s failure to fund its endowment confirms his long-held view that the city never should have signed over the large section of Jackson Park.
"They put a million dollars into a $400 million endowment, so it’s endowed. That gets you in jail as a securities matter," Epstein told Fox News Digital. "An endowment means that you have the money in hand. But they have nothing. They just have the same $1 million that they put in in 2021 as far as I can tell. So, I regard this as something of a public calamity."
An endowment is a pot of money meant to earn enough interest each year to cover operating costs without touching the principle in order to avoid the taxpayer stepping in.
"Without an endowment, they’ll have to scramble every year to cover $30 million in operating costs," Epstein said. "The whole point of an endowment is to avoid that volatility. They just haven’t endowed it. Of that I’m 100% sure."
Epstein argues that if the foundation or center falters, the public could be saddled with traffic rerouting costs, environmental impacts or even the bill for an incomplete building.
"Nobody knows exactly who is responsible for what if the project is abandoned or incomplete," Epstein said. "There is a risk that the public will then have to bear that loss because the foundation won’t have the money."
Epstein said the city has effectively looked the other way, declaring the foundation "compliant" on the endowment despite only $1 million ever being deposited. It's proof, he argues, that officials never intended to enforce the requirement.
The Obama Foundation told Fox News Digital that it will be making "significant investments in the endowment in the coming years" as it has been prioritizing fundraising for the center and leadership programs.
"The Obama Presidential Center is fully funded, and it will open in the spring of 2026," a spokesperson for the foundation said.
CharityWatch, a nonprofit watchdog, told Fox News Digital that the foundation technically complied with its agreement by creating an endowment because the deal never set a dollar figure. The group also said that the foundation remains "well-funded" overall while also acknowledging the pledge risks, volatility and lack of a real endowment.
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Posted by NoMoreBS 2025-09-28 00:00||
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File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
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Merry-Go-Blog
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