Opposition members criticized plans for the use of budget excesses from 2023 in the Knesset's finance committee, on Monday.
National Unity MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen came out against rolling the funds over rather than putting them towards war expenses, saying the country is not economically prepared for war in the North, and that rolling funds over to “pointless” ministries who don’t know what to do with them does not make sense.“We are headed for a war on the northern front when the northern front is not even included in the budget,” said Farkash-Hacohen.“In front of our eyes, we have another pit in the budget that isn’t calculated in our expenses. The entire finance minister’s war budget was not completed in this committee because of arguments about money for kindergarten teachers in the ofek hadash [education reform] program.
“We are talking about advancing an increase of VAT by 1%, taxing our savings, a budget in the black next year; and suddenly we have an opportunity in the form of excesses from ministries, some of which are pointless, with coalition funds that were not cut,” she said.
As an example, she pointed to the “NIS 302 million of excess funds to [Settlement and National Missions] Minister [Orit] Strock who doesn’t know what to do with [the budgets] so she rolls them from year to year.”The funds should not be automatically transferred, but should be discussed so that they can be best used for addressing needs caused by the war, Yesh Atid MK Vladimir Beliak said in the meeting.“In what world do you live, that you are transferring NIS 300m. to Strock?” he asked. “Where do you live that you are transferring tens of millions to [Regional Cooperation Minister David] Amsalem’s ministry, where regional cooperation is the last thing that they have done?”“Let’s talk about each shekel. This is the first discussion since the budget was passed, give us the right to address each request [for funds],” he asked.
Hamad Amar addresses Moshe Gafni
Yisrael Beytenu MK Hamad Amar addressed committee head United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni, saying that Gafni had stated that there would not be budget transfers if the Druze villages were not added to the compensation plans.“We are transferring a ton of money, does anyone know what is going on in the North today? How many villages do not have protection?” he asked.Budget transfer plans are “only looking out for the good of each group in the coalition,” he added.Knesset members also pointed out that the government deficit is much higher due to the war, and that in that sense, the budget excess isn’t really excess, but could be put towards making the deficit smaller.
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.