Credit: ABC7 Chicago

Concern is mounting that Chicago taxpayers could be left holding the bag if the Obama Presidential Center runs into financial trouble, as the Obama Foundation has yet to establish the promised $470 million safety net designed to guard against a public bailout.

The scrutiny comes as a Fox News investigation reveals multiple contractors and subcontractors claiming losses ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions on the project. Some allege they remain locked in payment disputes and face financial ruin just days before the center’s grand opening.

Under its agreement with the city, the Obama Foundation pledged to create the fund, known as an endowment, as part of its 99-year deal to take control of the publicly owned 19.3-acre section of Jackson Park for a one-time payment of just $10.

The purpose of the fund was to ensure taxpayers would not be forced to bail out the project if financial problems emerged in the future.

But despite years of fundraising and an estimated $850 million project cost, reports indicate that only about $1 million has been deposited into the promised reserve fund.

Fox News reported:

Fox News Digital previously reported that the foundation had deposited just $1 million into the reserve fund in 2021 and that the balance remained largely unchanged in its most recent publicly available filings.

Concerns about the center’s financial state have raged for years, especially since construction delays and costs have ballooned from an original estimate of roughly $330 million to at least $850 million based on 2021 figures. An updated final projected cost has not been made public.

“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 outside the center last week as worker vehicles entered and exited the center.

“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.”

The contractor disputes have renewed concern of the endowment because critics argue the fund was intended to serve as a backstop if the project ever encountered financial distress. The Obama Foundation disputes suggestions that taxpayers face exposure and said the project is funded through private contributions.

Grogan said reports that contractors and subcontractors remain locked in payment disputes make the largely unfunded reserve even more problematic.

Mike Owen, president and owner of Adamson Plumbing, says his company is still owed nearly $4 million for work performed on the project. Company spreadsheets show the firm absorbed massive losses due to unnecessary rework, project delays, and more than 100 change-order requests.

Omar Shareef, president of the African American Contractors Association, told investigators that at least seven Black-owned contractors have turned to the group for help with seven-figure payment disputes. Some are fighting just to keep their businesses alive and are willing to settle for far less just to survive.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, one Black-owned subcontractor, II in One, already filed a $40 million federal lawsuit against the project’s structural engineering firm, alleging racial discrimination and cost overruns that threatened to bankrupt the company.

With zero financial buffer in place and small businesses already ringing the alarm on catastrophic payment delays, any future deficit at the monument will inevitably fall into the laps of local and federal taxpayers.

Jim Hᴏft Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

You can email Jim Hᴏft here, and read more of Jim Hᴏft's articles here.

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