Deri to limit Yom Haatzmaut spending for cities

Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri has announced that as of Yom Haatzmaut 2020, next year, performers performing for city Yom Haatzmaut celebrations will no longer be able to charge whatever they want, with top performers charging upwards of 250,000nis. Rather, they will be limited to 70,000nis for an hour long performance.

Deri's reasoning, based on the recommendations of a committee appointed to review the matter, is that cities should not have to spend so much public funding from taxpayers money that will come at the expense of other city services. For 70k, the city residents can get a quality performance at a reasonable rate and continue to get all the regular city services.

As well, Deri says, this will give an opportunity to other performers to perform - older, more senior performers, local performers. They normally get pushed aside in favor of the bigger names who are trending, but with the bigger celebrity performers likely not willing to perform for significantly lower rates than what they normally pull in, the spaces will open up for the lower-ticket performers.
source:  Channel 13 News

I'm not sure why they should mix in. A city that can afford to pay more should be able to pay more. A city that can't, should pay what it can afford by hiring a performer in its price range. It is a bit of a shame that residents of poorer cities will not have the opportunity to see a top tier performer once a year. They probably normally can't afford to see that on their own.

On the other hand, if the government will have to bail them out for spending too much to make residents happy and then being unable to provide city services such as welfare services or garbage pickup or whatever, I can understand the government saying we won't bail you out if you spend more than x. The thing is, this one-time annual expense is such a small part of any city's budget that it is unlikely to make a real dent. This new limitation, if it goes into effect, is a waste of time unless it is part of a larger overhaul of city spending with limitations on all spending relative to income from arnona and other revenue.

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