Interior Minister Avraham Poraz (Shinui) issued a new decree
last week, ordering the cancellation of local tax
(arnonah) discounts for large and low-income
families.
According to the new policy, which will take effect at the
beginning of 2004, Income Support (Havtachat
Hachnasah) and alimony recipients will stop receiving
automatic discounts of up to 70 percent on local taxes. The
new policy will not apply to those who began receiving
Guaranteed Income before the beginning of 2003, assuming
there was no interruption of six months or more in their
eligibility for benefits. Those who began to receive benefits
after the beginning of 2003 and reached the age of 50 will
continue to receive the discount until the beginning of
2005.
Furthermore Minister Poraz decreed that Child Support
Payments (Kitzva'ot Yeladim) will be defined as
"income" in determining eligibility for the tax break since
the income of the person filing the request is also taken
into account. In his announcement last week Poraz said
previously it had been decided to revoke the directives to
include Child Support Payments as income, but now he has
decided to incorporate this policy.
Until now eligibility for Income Support was a condition for
receiving a discount, but now Minister Poraz is including
this as income, which will cause considerable financial
strain on the weaker economic rungs. In a press release last
week Poraz said, "The aim of the reform is to cancel
distortions in local taxes created over the years. These
distortions were created because of unjustified exemptions,
which are now being cancelled."
MK Rabbi Avrohom Ravitz (UTJ) said Poraz' reform will add
poverty onto poverty and exacerbate the poverty of people who
needed these discounts. "It suits Mr. Poraz well to make this
decision. This is another move toward harming weak families
that receive Income Support, which will now be forced to
struggle more for their subsistence. This proves that we have
before us an economic program in which anyone who ever had
visions of how to ensure there will not be large families,
chas vesholom, has come to power and has the ability
to realize his furious dreams."
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni (UTJ) says, "This man, Poraz, only cares
about animals that walk on four legs. He has no feeling for
sectors in a state of economic distress. Guaranteed Income
recipients constitute the bottom tenth of the population in
Israel, and when he comes and makes specific proposals to
harm them, in addition to all of the harsh blows these weaker
rungs have had from this evil government, this is indicative
of malice, imperviousness, blunted feelings. This is a very
serious decision; Poraz is deciding to add in Child Support
Payments and to calculate it as earnings in order to strike
another blow. These families will not have the money to pay
the local tax. Perhaps Poraz will send in his private police
to take hungry families to jail. I don't think there is a
single local authority head in Israel who will agree to
follow Poraz' evil path."
