That's probably all it would have taken to find enough of them anxious to have their names on one of the rooms, hallways or whatever in the Obama Center being built in Chicago.

Instead, Illinois taxpayers from Cairo to Galena will pay $172 million towards construction. It's in the new budget just passed, to be signed shortly by Governor Rauner.

Remember when we were told, "Construction and maintenance will be funded by private donations and no taxpayer money will go to the foundation"? That's what an Obama Foundation spokesperson said. Oh, I guess that didn't mean re-configuring roadways around the center, which apparently is what the state money will go towards.

It's not a presidential library, by the way, since the archives for his papers and such will be somewhere else.