Taxpayers could be left with a big tab if the Obama Presidential Center experiences financial trouble because its foundation has not yet established a promised $470 million safety net to guard against a public bailout.
That according a Fox News Digital investigation of the center’s finances as Chicago awaits its grand opening on Friday, June 19.
The outlet’s investigation, published Saturday, found that “multiple contractors and subcontractors claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the project, with some alleging they remain locked in payment disputes and face financial ruin…”
In an agreement with the city of Chicago, the foundation promised to create the endowment, essentially a reserve of cash, as part of its 99-year sweetheart deal to to control the publicly owned 19.3-acre section of Jackson Park for a one-time payment of just $10.
The foundation had deposited just $1 million into the reserve fund in 2021, but the balance has largely not changed according to public filings, the outlet reported.
The shortfall is not the first chapter in matters not going as expected for the ambitious project, which also included handsome salaries for former Obama presidential aids.
As Breitbart News reported last November:
The Obama library was originally estimated to cost $300 million, before the budget was revised upward to $500 million in 2017, and then further up to $700 million in 2021. Now, in a financial disclosure form, it appears it will cost much closer to $850 million to construct the mammoth grey monolith building in the South Side of Chicago in Jackson Park.
Executives at the Obama Foundation “are among the best paid of all cultural centers in the nation, with CEO Valerie Jarrett paid $740,000 last year.” Robin Cohen, the executive vice president of the foundation, earned over $600,000 and Tina Chen, the group’s chief legal and people officer, earned $425,000.
Called a “center,” rather than a presidential library, as Obama’s presidential records will be held by the National Archives in Maryland.
No final cost has been publicly released for the Chicago project. It reportedly has been entirely funded by private donations from individuals, corporations and other foundations.
“One of their core promises was they were supposed to create an endowment as basically an insurance policy so the taxpayers wouldn’t get stuck with the bill,” Illinois GOP Chair Robert Grogan told Fox News Digital.
He continued, “They promised hundreds of millions of dollars for it. It’s still sitting at the $1 million mark [where it stood] when they opened it up. So I don’t believe that they’ve kept that promise.”
Grogan said reports that contractors and subcontractors remain locked in payment disputes make the underfunded safety net more problematic.
The outlet’s investigation identified multiple construction firms that were claiming losses “from hundreds of thousands of dollars to tens of millions.”
Adamson Plumbing President Mike Owen, for example, provided company spreadsheets which revealed that his firm is nearly $4 million in the hole, caused by delays, unnecessary rework, and more than 100 change-order requests.
Omar Shareef, the president of the African American Contractors Association, told Fox News Digital that several black-owned contractors are also racked with financial difficulty due to the project.
The Obama Foundation responded to the investigation.
An official told Fox News Digital that is in compliance with its agreement with the city. The agreement did not require a dollar target for the endowment, according to the foundation.
However, the $470 million figure was cited in the foundation’s 2020 annual report that promised to “sustain Obama Foundation activities and the operations of the OPC for generations to come,” according to the outlet.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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