At the end of August came the figures. And what figures they were. Due to the accumulation of extreme cuts by government, provinces and municipalities, the abolition of the successful Work and Income for Artists Act and the equally successful culture card, plus the VAT increase on the arts, the Netherlands' cultural sector would end up missing out on €1 billion in revenue. Berenschot had pieced that together in a source study carried out free of charge and the already dumbed-down arts sector was angry.
The opposition asked Halbe Zijlstra for a response, and so there was one on Friday 23 September. In short, it comes down to the fact that Zijlstra does not take the study seriously to begin with, because it was commissioned by an interest group (Kunsten '92). He then states that there are at least two other studies that show it may not be so bad. With it, he refers to the study 'Giving in the Netherlands' which is published biennially by the Free University is done, and on the very cautious conclusions of research firm DSP on cuts in local government spending. According to the first study, donations to culture rose from 8 to 10 per cent of total donations between 2007 and 2009. Incidentally, a salient detail here is that the VU researchers conclude that the general willingness to give of the Dutch is sadly low. And that by far the most is given to the church. Companies only give to sports. The arts have to rely on inheritances.
Passages overlooked by the secretary of state, as he also keeps referring to the 'Culture in focus' report about which we showed earlier That the state secretary thereon extremely creative with the truth has been handled.
From DSP's initial conclusions, Halbe Zijlstra believes he has been equally creative in establishing that the cuts at municipalities are much lower than the 25% calculated by Berenschot. The passage from Zijlstra's letter on this is interesting:
"The report shows that for the majority of municipalities (55%), the extent of cuts over the period 2013-2016 is not yet known. Of the municipalities where it is known, 4% will not make cuts, 27% of the municipalities think they will make cuts of less than 10%. Over 7% of municipalities think they will cut between 10 and 20% and 7% of municipalities think they will cut more than 20%."
Nothing can be concluded from these figures either, except that for the vast majority, municipalities had no idea where they stood in February 2011 (they have known since Prince's Day pass). Incidentally, PVV celeb knew Martin Bosma back in February to name a few municipalities in which cuts to culture went far beyond what the cabinet proposed.
Finally: as before VVD gaming tax spokesman Bart @deliefde already referred to other figures and studies but failed to produce them, his party colleague Zijlstra is going his own way with studies and figures. The summaries of the very solid report Atlas of Municipalities he does not mention, probably because its conclusions are much more serious than Berenschot's.
All that remains is that Zijlstra will keep an eye on the consequences of the economic crisis, and further expects a lot from the Giving Act, which is intended to yield the 200 million the cabinet has now taken from the sector. In the letter, by the way, he does not mention the announcement in the million note that the cabinet is already going to examine the consequences of the VAT increase on the arts.
To be continued - of course
The letter: policy-reaction-report-berenschot-inzake-dropping-turnovers-from
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