Columns Cultural journalist admits: I want fighters, tremendous health care and only one percent tax on culture

Now the cultural journalist has to make a confession: if i could start building the Finnish state budget a hundred at a time, the first 99 euros would go to health care and only one euro to culture.

Of the next hundred, I would put 99 euros into education and only one into culture.

I will not comment on the number of fighters, but we need credible national defense. So I will give 99 euros for the next hundred for national defense and only for the culture of the euro.

And so I would continue for the whole budget and for all areas of the budget. So I am percentage principle position.

On a percentage basis traditionally means that a percentage of the construction cost is spent on the art placed in the building.

The idea developed a hundred years ago in many countries. Even in Finland, the twenty largest cities support this model, although implementation varies.

Culture– and the Central Art Association Kulta ry and the Student Union of the University of the Arts Helsinki recently developed a cunning Cultural Budget to Percentage campaign.

The cultural budget can be defined in many ways, but Kulta ry took over the budget category 29.80 of the Ministry of Education and Culture and demands that that share be raised to one per cent of the total state budget expenditure during the 2023 parliamentary term.

That would mean an increase of around EUR 110 million. The amount can be compared, for example, to the fact that this year the government of Sanna Marin (sd) added support for the peat sector EUR 70 million.

Culture however, operators in favor of a moderate increase in support are in difficulty when, in order to reduce gambling problems, there is a desire to reduce the accumulation of betting resources by reducing the supply of games.

As will be recalled, the government first announced a reduction in betting profits, citing that in 2022 funding for art decreases approximately EUR 18.4 million.

Little is bad to save, and concretization of the cutting list finally startled the government as well. Veikkaus beneficiaries intentions to cut were canceled without making a similar promise for the next frame dispute.

Uncertainty should not recur every year. The working group led by Erkki Liikanen has suggested that culture and sports, for example, should be supported by a normal budget, so that changes in Veikkaus gaming would not have a direct effect.

Based on this, the Secretary of State’s working group and the parliamentary monitoring group have considered a sustainable and predictable financial basis for the future activities of Veikkaus’ beneficiaries. The next meeting will be on 28 December.

Could you cultural life to get both? To the percentage of full compensation for the reduction in Veikkaus profits and the cultural budget? And where would moderate additional funding come from?

One idea could be to extend the percentage principle to business support.

Before the pandemic in 2019, the business support pot was calculated to be EUR 8.8 billion per year, including tax subsidies, reduced VAT rates and other benefits.

In the first year of the pandemic, Statistics Finland reported an increase in direct business support 268 percent, which was understandable in the acute crisis. A small proportion of these business subsidies helped companies to enrich cultural life.

Here could be a place for further development.

If, in accordance with the percentage principle, billions of business aids are earmarked for enriching cultural offerings (which health- and learning effects, as studies show), it would open up new possibilities.

And small Finland, as a country of culture, could do even better.

The author is the cultural editor of HS.