"The annual budget presented by this current government is the worst I have ever encountered in the Knesset. I don't know what went on during the austerity period of the 50's, but even in 2003, when very harsh laws were imposed upon the public, they didn't come near to what is taking place now."
These were the words of MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni in the Knesset plenum when he presented his no-confidence bill as a joint Opposition move of UTJ and Meretz in reaction to the horrendous and cruel budget bill presented by this new government.
This no confidence bill, like several others presented by the Opposition, was rejected by a majority of the Knesset members of the Coalition.
Rabbi Gafni enumerated the injustices and inequalities in the budget and the Arrangements Law which the ministers, including the Treasury Minister himself, are not even aware of and whose ramifications they don't understand. He quoted for example the suggestion to raise the municipality tax of the various stronger local councils in order to fund and balance the budgets of weaker local councils. The municipal tax will, as a result, for example, rise also in the disadvantaged Hatikva slum neighborhood of Tel Aviv. "How can you do this? In the previous Knesset term, when the Treasury also presented this suggestion, the MKs stood up on their hind legs in protest and it was dismissed."
