Obama Foundation Deposits Only $1M of Promised $470M Endowment for Center
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.
The poster child for this racket is, of course, the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. When the Obama Foundation got its hands on 19.3 acres of historic parkland for the low, low price of $10, it made a critical pledge: a $470 million reserve fund to ensure Chicagoans would never be on the hook. Yet, recent tax filings reveal the truth. The fund contains a pathetic one million dollars. And it’s been gathering dust for years.
The financial mismanagement here is almost impressive. The project’s initial cost of around $300 million has somehow nearly tripled, ballooning to an eye-watering $850 million. This isn’t a minor overage; it’s a neon sign flashing “no one is watching the checkbook.”
It all started with that sweetheart deal for the land. The city of Chicago essentially gave away a prime slice of Jackson Park—a local treasure—on a 99-year term. The price? Ten dollars. A sum that wouldn’t even cover a nice dinner in Chicago. Any normal developer would be laughed out of the room for proposing such a thing. But for the politically connected, the rules are different.
Enter Richard Epstein, a law professor at New York University who isn’t buying the excuses. He’s been sounding the alarm for years, calling the situation a “public calamity” and warning that taxpayers will ultimately be forced to “bear that loss.” On the foundation’s laughable attempt to fund its endowment, he was blunt: “That gets you in jail as a securities matter.”
To avoid any real scrutiny, the city and the foundation employed a nifty little piece of legal wordplay. They simply rebranded the 99-year lease as a “use agreement,” a move designed to sidestep the public trust doctrine that protects public lands. It was a clear admission that accountability was something to be dodged, not embraced.
But here’s the kicker. The most infuriating part of this story isn’t what the Obama Foundation is missing; it’s what it has. While it ignores its promise to protect the citizens of Chicago, the foundation is sitting on a massive pile of cash. Its net assets have reportedly climbed past one billion dollars.
This isn’t an organization struggling to make ends meet. This is an organization with more money than it knows what to do with, yet it refuses to honor its most basic financial commitment to the public. It’s the kind of breathtaking arrogance you only see from the truly untouchable. They chose to build their shiny monument first and worry about their responsibilities later—or never.
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.
The poster child for this racket is, of course, the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. When the Obama Foundation got its hands on 19.3 acres of historic parkland for the low, low price of $10, it made a critical pledge: a $470 million reserve fund to ensure Chicagoans would never be on the hook. Yet, recent tax filings reveal the truth. The fund contains a pathetic one million dollars. And it’s been gathering dust for years.
The financial mismanagement here is almost impressive. The project’s initial cost of around $300 million has somehow nearly tripled, ballooning to an eye-watering $850 million. This isn’t a minor overage; it’s a neon sign flashing “no one is watching the checkbook.”
It all started with that sweetheart deal for the land. The city of Chicago essentially gave away a prime slice of Jackson Park—a local treasure—on a 99-year term. The price? Ten dollars. A sum that wouldn’t even cover a nice dinner in Chicago. Any normal developer would be laughed out of the room for proposing such a thing. But for the politically connected, the rules are different.
Enter Richard Epstein, a law professor at New York University who isn’t buying the excuses. He’s been sounding the alarm for years, calling the situation a “public calamity” and warning that taxpayers will ultimately be forced to “bear that loss.” On the foundation’s laughable attempt to fund its endowment, he was blunt: “That gets you in jail as a securities matter.”
To avoid any real scrutiny, the city and the foundation employed a nifty little piece of legal wordplay. They simply rebranded the 99-year lease as a “use agreement,” a move designed to sidestep the public trust doctrine that protects public lands. It was a clear admission that accountability was something to be dodged, not embraced.
But here’s the kicker. The most infuriating part of this story isn’t what the Obama Foundation is missing; it’s what it has. While it ignores its promise to protect the citizens of Chicago, the foundation is sitting on a massive pile of cash. Its net assets have reportedly climbed past one billion dollars.
This isn’t an organization struggling to make ends meet. This is an organization with more money than it knows what to do with, yet it refuses to honor its most basic financial commitment to the public. It’s the kind of breathtaking arrogance you only see from the truly untouchable. They chose to build their shiny monument first and worry about their responsibilities later—or never.
70-79, M
