The cabinet has approved the across-the-board NIS 1.9 billion cut in the government ministries' budget at its meeting, held in the Askelon Coast Regional Council today.
"Defense comes first," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the beginning of today's cabinet meeting, thereby taking Minister of Defense Moshe Ya'alon's side in the battle of the budget, and hinting that he is preparing the ground for tax hikes. "I hope that quiet prevails for a long time, but we're prepared for any scenario on the Gaza front and on the other fronts, including the Golan, of course," Netanyahu added.
"We'll make up for the shortages that have been caused in the defense establishment. This reflects our understanding of priorities, in which defense comes first. We have done great things here, but this also requires us to tighten our belts in order to enable the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, and the other units to continue defending Israel effectively," he declared.
Not all the ministers agreed with him. Minister of Welfare Meir Cohen stated that he would not allow another cut in his ministry's budget. "The Ministry of Welfare is the last hope for hundreds of thousands of families on the brink of economic and emotional collapse. Whom will we deprive? Those who have nothing to put in their children's sandwich for school?", Cohen complained. "I emphasize that not only will the welfare budget not shrink; it will grow next year, including initial budgets for the cost of implementing the conclusions drawn by the Allalouf Committee on Reducing Poverty."
Minister of the Environment Amir Peretz asked that the vote on assistance to the communities near the Gaza Strip, which he supports, be separated from the vote on the method of paying for it. Peretz also said that the cut in the ministries budgets would affected the most economically disadvantaged, and that the Ministry of Finance should be required to present an alternative plan of using surpluses or increasing taxes by 1% for all those earning over NIS 15,000 a month, and according to the tax brackets.
The opposition also attacked the across-the-board budget cut. MK Shelly Yachimovich called on the ministers to vote against the budget cuts for the Ministries of Welfare, Health, Education, and Transportation, which she said would harm only the poor, and the lower-middle and middle-middle class, and exacerbate inequality. "The most disadvantaged are being deprived of NIS 2 billion, simply because it's easy," Yachimovich stated. "For example, why do they prefer to harm students whose parents don't have money for private lessons, patients who don't have money for expensive insurance, people on welfare, and people who use public transportation, instead of cutting NIS 7 billion a year in tax exemptions? Because it's easy."
Shas chairman Aryeh Deri called the cut, "A scandal and insolence on the part of the government." He added, "Instead of cutting tax benefits for rich people and huge budgets for the upper class, the rich people's government has elected to take from the other Israel - from those whose voices are not heard. I call on the members of the government to vote against the cut, and not to lend a hand to the continued trampling of the disadvantaged."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 31, 2014
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