Social issues dominated the last two days of budget talks
before the Knesset passed the 2007 budget in a first reading.
The opposition lodged piercing criticism against the cuts on
social spending, saying that they serve the rich and hurt the
underclass, and even a number of coalition members said that
a bigger piece of the pie would have to be set aside for
social spending before the second and third readings.
But before demands are made to allocate additional funds for
social affairs, funds already earmarked for the 2006 budget
should arrive at their respective destinations, for the
Finance Ministry has a habit of delaying funds allocated for
social programs.
This pattern has been seen in past years as well, but this
year it is breaking all the records. Since we are already 10
months into the 2006 budget year, 83 percent of budget
funding should already have been spent. Yet the government
ministries in charge of social programs have only used 74
percent of their budget funds.
This probably accounts for much of the NIS 2 billion ($470
million) in surplus funds at a time when the poor are
buckling under the weight of trying to make ends meet.
During the budget talks Rabbi Meir Porush noted that this
refutes the government's claim Children's Allowances and
Elderly Allowances must be frozen due to the costs of the war
in Lebanon.
Eli Yishai's Priorities
Eli Yishai is chairman of Shas, deputy prime minister and
minister of trade and industry. Logic dictates that this
order matches his priorities, since Shas voters elected him
to represent them and not necessarily to serve as trade
minister. Today he happens to head the ministry, but tomorrow
he could find himself elsewhere — in another ministry
or out of the government entirely.
Though Yishai has served as a Shas representative for 10
years, this role does not seem to be his top priority.
Yishai has made clear that Shas will not support the budget
in the second and third readings unless a series of demands
is met. But the truth of the matter is that Shas has no
intention of resigning from the government and the coalition
over a few million shekels here and there, even if funding
for their institutions gets cut. Shas has made a decision to
stay put in the coalition until the end of the current term
— at any price. Spending the last term in the
opposition was plenty for them.
The proposed budget for 2007 slashes more than 50 percent of
the budgets for yeshivas, other Torah institutions,
talmudei Torah and busing. Almost all funding relating
to the chareidi public was cut in half. Shas seems to be
relying on its ability to remedy the situation through budget
negotiations. But why can't Shas prevent the Finance Ministry
from undermining the budgets for the yeshivas and Torah
institutions in the first place? After all the Sephardic
yeshivas and talmudei Torah are affected no less than
the other Torah institutions in Eretz Yisroel.
Now back to Eli Yishai. In an interview with financial daily
Globes, he said Shas would vote against the budget if
the Finance Ministry failed to add hundreds of millions of
shekels to the budget for . . . the Trade and Industry
Ministry's Center for Investments and Research and
Development.
If the Center does not receive a substantial budget increase,
Yishai warned, there would be no point in maintaining it and
dozens of investors would set up their enterprises abroad. "I
see that the Finance Ministry is beginning to understand the
importance of this budget increase," he said, "and I will
continue to do battle. If we don't get it we will not be able
to back the budget. And I'm referring to the party, not just
myself."
Asked whether the Finance Ministry is aware of the
forcefulness of the battle Shas plans to wage for the Center,
Yishai said, "If they don't know about it, now they will read
about it in Globes."
On the other hand, Globes readers won't find out about
any campaign Yishai plans to wage against the mortal blow to
the budget for the yeshivas and other Torah institutions. Nor
will they read that all of Shas will oppose the budget in the
absence of a substantial increase of hundreds of millions of
shekels for issues that touch at the heart and soul of the
party's constituents.
