Consolidating local authorities will contribute to savings and service efficiency. So why are there so many mechanisms in our tiny country?

• Kadima-Zoran. Were merged in 2003

  Photo: 

  Assaf Sagi, Wikipedia

Produced by the Department of Special Supplements

Does the government want to save on expenses following the Corona crisis? Why not unite cities and authorities and save tens of billions here and now. In Denmark and Japan they have successfully cut by more than half.

First of all a little about our dream country: in Israel 257 authorities: 77 municipalities, 124 local councils, 56 regional councils. An inflated number whose reduction will result in budget savings of several billion in the state budget. The heads of the authorities have 294 deputies at a huge salary, and in addition they also have to pay the CEO, treasurer, bureaus, drivers, consultants, spokesmen and hundreds of other officials.

In Denmark there were 270 local authorities similar to ours, and they reduced it to 90 local authorities. In Japan within a few years the number of local authorities has been reduced by more than half.

Here, too, every few years, grandiose programs for the unification of authorities come up, designed to save their budgets and streamline their activities. The vast majority end with a weak response and are shelved in the name of fear of the move. Perhaps now, with the corona economy in the background, it is time to make it clear to mayors and councils, who have so far prevented the move from personal considerations, that there is simply no choice.

The great economic crisis that is befalling us should lead to the tightening of belts and the reduction of expenses. The choice of components to be reduced is a direct result of political pressures.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considered an ardent supporter of the idea. Even in the days when he was finance minister in the government of Ariel Sharon, he talked about the streamlining of local government and the existence of up to 150 local authorities in the entire country. The prime minister is not the only one who has spoken on the issue. In fact, every few years a political figure has emerged to wave the flag. The latter was former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. It seems that the pressures of local government have led the plans to remain plans. There is still talk of uniting Tel Aviv and Bat Yam, for example, in two or three years.

small country

One of the lovely things about Israel is the fact that we have a small country. In less than two hours drive you can reach all the main places. In one day one can simply plow over the whole country. This fact alone leads many to ask why a country with such dimensions, the size of a large city in the world, needs no less than 257 tangled mechanisms of local government?

Daliyat al-Carmel. Union with Asfiya failed // Photo: Ron Almog, Wikipedia

The operating cost of all the authorities in Israel is about NIS 65 billion a year. Of this, more than NIS 24 billion is directed to the payment of salaries. About NIS 28 billion of the total authorities' budget comes from the state coffers. The balance of the amount, about NIS 40 billion, comes from the revenues of the local authority, funds whose main source is property tax payments.

On average, every 36,000 residents in the country are incorporated under one local authority. Each authority is headed by an official who pockets between NIS 35,000 and NIS 50,000 each month (the basic salary depends on the size of the authority). In addition, the authority pays salaries to an entire mechanism of functionaries, including bureaus, deputies, consultants, speakers, drivers, treasurers, CEOs and more.

In order to make it more efficient, both in terms of budget and in terms of services for the resident and the execution of projects, the idea of ​​uniting authorities arose in the 1950s. Perhaps now the new Minister of Finance, Israel Katz, will be able to raise the flag in the name of the economic crisis.

There are many benefits to uniting the authorities. Budget efficiency, coordination between authorities, reduction of bureaucracy and shortening procedures. Of course there are also drawbacks, such as difficulty in expressing the needs of the citizen. Another significant disadvantage is the high cost of the consolidation procedure.

 A lesson in history

Let us go back to the moves of unification authorities that have been made in recent decades. The first union took place in 1949, for political reasons precisely, between the cities of Tel Aviv and Jaffa. In the following decades a number of mergers were made from time to time, out of a desire to streamline failed or less efficient authorities.

The comprehensive plan to reduce the number of authorities was, as stated, by Prime Minister Netanyahu, about two decades ago. The desired number of 150 authorities was determined out of a desire to set a lower threshold of 15,000 residents for a local authority. Oppositions narrowed Netanyahu's plan and in 2003 only 27 authorities were merged, becoming 12 following the merger.

Bat Yam. On the way to unification with Tel Aviv? // Photo: Ilan Kostika, Wikipedia

But all the unions in the Arab and Druze sectors failed and were soon abolished. The remaining unions include Kadima - Zoran, Kochav Yair - Tzur Yigal, Modi'in - Maccabim - Reut, Binyamina - Givat Ada, Yehud - Neve Monosson and Savyon - Ganei Yehuda.

In 2008, then-Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit announced another unification plan, which would apply the lessons of the past. The authorities that were supposed to go through the unification process: Bat Yam with Holon, Ramat Gan with Givatayim, Rehovot with Ness Ziona, Ramla with Lod, Kiryat Bialik with Kiryat Motzkin, Kfar Saba with Hod Hasharon, Kiryat Haim Haifa with Kiryat Yam, Herzliya with Ramat Hasharon And Kfar Shmaryahu, Or Yehuda and Yehud with Savyon, Maalot with Kfar Vradim and more. After the end of Sheetrit's term as Minister of the Interior, the plan was shelved, and since then there has been no proposal to unite authorities.

The pressure groups, which stood on their hind legs against previous EU initiatives, continue to operate even today. Opponents include, among others, heads of authorities and representatives of workers' committees.

Looking ahead

Despite the opposition, the local government does not ignore the fact that the failed administrative situation in which quite a few authorities operate requires systemic efficiency. In 2009, the Ministries of Finance and the Interior, together with the Center for Local Government, formulated a pilot for the establishment of clusters of authorities.

This means economic cooperation between neighboring authorities in order to lower costs through the use of unified resources.

There is no doubt that in this period, when the world economy is in turmoil, the government should set an example for the citizens and act to reduce and streamline inflated mechanisms.

• The author is a former real estate journalist and a founding partner in the law firm KAS, which deals with real estate law and family law.

Produced by the Department of Special Supplements