The skyrocketing costs of Barack Obama’s presidential center in Chicago are hitting new highs, with the price tag now ballooning to a staggering $850 million—almost three times the initial $300 million pitch when the idea first surfaced.
The Obama Foundation has already poured over $615 million into this lavish project in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, according to recent reports from the Chicago Tribune.
What started as a supposedly modest tribute has morphed into a money pit, with estimates climbing year after year like unchecked government spending.
Back in 2017, when the designs rolled out, the budget jumped to $500 million. By 2021, construction alone was pegged at $700 million, pushing the overall tab to $830 million, per the Chicago Tribune.
Now, the foundation’s own spokeswoman, Emily Bittner, confirms the final figure sits at $850 million, as detailed in the Tribune’s coverage.
And let’s not forget the delays—this grand campus was meant to swing open its doors this year, but now it’s pushed back to next spring.
Meanwhile, the Obama Foundation is swimming in cash, boasting net assets that just crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time.
They raked in $195 million last year alone from almost 92,000 donors, per the Tribune’s findings.
But here’s where it gets really infuriating for hardworking taxpayers: when the deal was inked to build this thing, the foundation promised a hefty $470 million reserve fund to shield the public from any financial fallout.
Fast-forward to today, and fresh tax filings reveal a measly $1 million has been socked away in that fund—with zero additions in recent times.
This blatant shortfall has Illinois Republicans firing back hard.
Illinois GOP Chair Kathy Salvi didn’t mince words, slamming the project as an “abomination” and warning that Democrats are gambling with taxpayer dollars.
“It should come as no surprise that the Obama Center is potentially leaving Illinois taxpayers high and dry — it’s an Illinois Democrat tradition,” Salvi stated to Fox News Digital. “Democrats in this state, when not going to prison for corruption, treat taxpayers like a personal piggy bank giving sweetheart deals to their political benefactors.”
Attempts to get a straight answer from the Obama Foundation or the Barack Obama Presidential Library went nowhere—they didn’t bother responding to inquiries from FOX Business.
Stay tuned to the Fairview Gazette.
