The Knesset plenum voted 56 to 41 on Wednesday afternoon on a preliminary reading of a bill that would postpone the deadline for passing the state budget from August 24 to December 3.
The bill is being advanced because Likud and Blue and White disagree on whether to pass one two-year budget or two one-year budgets. If no budget passes by the deadline, the Knesset would be dispersed automatically.
“If we don’t take action soon, the Knesset will be dispersed,” the bill’s sponsor, Derech Eretz MK Zvi Hauser told the plenum. “My bill will allow us to tell the public: Yes, we are doing what is necessary to tackle the challenge that nature has posed to us.”
The bill would give more time for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to negotiate an agreement on the budget and will now go to the Knesset Finance Committee to be legislated further. Channel 12 reported that the Likud was asking Blue and White for concessions and changes in the coalition agreement in return for passing a two-year budget as Gantz wants and the coalition agreement states.
Following a stormy debate, the bill received permission on Tuesday morning from the Knesset House Committee to come to its first vote in the Knesset plenum on Wednesday. The bill's sponsor, MK Zvi Hauser, lamented that both Likud and Blue and White were telling their supporters how right they were instead of sitting together and reaching an agreement on a new state budget.
"The only question about my bill is whether to punish the public by enabling elections that they don't want and would cost NIS 5 billion," Hauser said.