The budget battles have reached the final line:
today (Monday) the amended 2024 budget will be placed on the Knesset table almost two weeks late from the date specified in the law.
The budget will be raised in two days for a vote in the plenary in the first reading.
If the Knesset fails to approve it before February 19, there will be a horizontal cut of NIS 67 billion in all government ministries.
The schedule for the budget discussions was shortened a lot, as a result of the fact that the Ministry of Finance took time to publish them.
This delay slightly reveals the behind-the-scenes attempts to insert the remaining coalition funds in the 2024 budget (about 5 billion shekels) into the official budget, this is to evade individual approvals in the finance committee that would be exposed to the public eye and provoke criticism of the government.
Despite the desire of the ultra-orthodox parties and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to include the money in the base of the budget, and as such to be a permanent component from now on every year and to grow in accordance with the growth of ultra-orthodox society, the formula that was finally agreed upon was to include it in the budget in general and not in the base, so that there would be no need for further discussion on These funds but they will not increase every year.
Among other things, the ultra-orthodox education budget and income guarantee for the elderly came in, together with additions in other areas for a total of NIS 4 billion.
According to Knesset officials - the yeshiva budget remains outside the budget and will pass as coalition funds despite the attempts to whitewash it as well.
A third of the budget has disappeared from the tables.
Head of Takuma administration (archive), photo: none
The haste behind the scenes to reshape the coalition finances in the 24 budget also originates from the demand for legal advice to the government at the last minute - that's what Finance Minister Smotrich claimed.
In addition, they also tried to find "lost funds" there, such as a third of the Takuma administration budget that disappeared in the budget tables prepared by the budget department, as well as half a billion shekels for the defense of the north.
All these battles between Smotrich's people in the Treasury and the budget department led to an unimaginable delay of 12 days, which now leaves significantly less time for discussions in the Knesset, but there is no intention to give up the total time that will be devoted to discussions.
The chairman of the coalition, Ofir Katz, who is supported by the legal advice to the Knesset, informed the Treasury that he insists on complying with the language of the law for the budget discussions to last 30 days as stipulated.
The public loses
In the meantime, at the door of the Knesset stands the public - the reservists, the independent women of the reservists who are not included in the benefits route, and also a broad public that groans under the cost of living and there is no savior.
Economy Minister Nir Barkat does say that he is not moved by the big companies' threats that prices will be raised, but for the time being it seems that they are not moved by his threats either - and rightly so.
Ministry of Economy (archive).
No steps were taken to deal with the impending price increases, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In fact, the Ministry of Economy did not take any immediate steps to deal with the impending price increases, this is in contrast to the Ministry of Finance's attempt to postpone the budget decrees for 2025 in order not to burden the citizens of Israel during wartime.
With the exception of frequent discussions in the Economic Committee chaired by David Bitan, the Finance Committee did not convene discussions on the urgent issues at hand, and the Minister of Economy did not, for example, take the immediate step in his hands: price control orders.
And the public?
Remains hanging between the chairs.
One of the members of the coalition called the government since October 7 a kind of feudal government - every ministry for itself, there is no comprehensive vision and no government policy other than statements.
Dealing with price reductions?
nothing.
The housing price was the subject of a press conference yesterday by Housing Minister Goldknopf together with the Finance Minister, and officials in the real estate industry are shouting that the Housing Minister is "not at the event".
All the ministers' announcements about bringing foreign workers to the real estate industry as a replacement for the Palestinian workers have so far come to naught. How bad is the situation? The Director General of the Ministry of Housing, who asked to travel and handle the agreement to bring the workers from Sri Lanka, could not find a flight that leaves there due to the war.
Plans to shorten bureaucracy have not yet progressed to bring tens of thousands of foreign workers to Israel to cover the paralysis in the construction industry since October 7.
Due to the lack of a government policy regarding the future of Palestinian employment, a socio-economic ministerial committee that is supposed to discuss the issue has not convened for weeks.
At a press conference held last night, the Ministry of Housing announced that they will increase the quotas for foreign workers.
And in the meantime?
Announcements and promises are there, execution?
Cabinet ministers have solutions.
Were we wrong?
We will fix it!
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