An old story in Bet Shemesh has made the news again due to finally arriving at the next stage of the story...
Beginning in 2004, for a period of nearly 2 years, the City of Bet Shemesh collected much more arnona from residents than they had coming to them. A class-action suit was eventually filed against the City of Bet Shemesh claiming an excess of 4.8 million shekels had been collected, translating to 163 NIS per household in the city.
In the suit the City claimed it should not have to pay any money back because it needed the money, and even if it should be decided that they must, it did not have the ability to return the money to the residents due to the poor financial situation of the city coffers. A settlement was eventually reached in which the city agreed to pay back 41% of the debt, to the tune of 2 million NIS, but not to the residents. Because per resident the amount would be too little to be worthwhile, the money would go to a public fund from which everyone would benefit.
92.5% of the money would be distributed among 54 various shuls in the city (34,000 NIS per shul), and the balance would go to some other projects, including some renovations of the cemetery (installation of shading from the sun) and a bit of money to the youth club for Ethiopians on Narkiss st.
The Iryah defends the decision to do so saying that it ha snothing to do with being haredi. The arrangement was administered by the legal counsel of the city, a person who is not religious, and it was approved by the courts. Announcements were published a couple of times in the local press. Most of the city is religious and traditional, so everyone is benefiting from the money in this way. Every shul that requested to receive some of the money, was included in the distribution.
(source: Calcalist)
It must be pointed out that the distribution of the money is being handled by this Iryah, but the case really happened under previous administrations.
Putting that aside, I see no reason that this demand of the City to not give the money back to residents should have been accepted. If they did not have enough money to give out, they could have credited the accounts of residents from future arnona payments.
Who are they to say that 63 NIS is so little it is not worth giving that amount out? If I would have shorted them in my arnona payments they would come after me and charge me interest and put liens on my property for the sum of 163 NIS. They would not forgo the money saying ti is not worth collecting such a paltry sum. If they knew how to collect it improperly, they should have given it back to anyone who overpaid. And there should not have been a settlement. They over-collected, they should return the money. if I owe money they do not knock off half my debt...
I would also like to see a break-down of which shuls are getting part of the settlement. Only 54 shuls are included. I dont know how many are in the city, but 54 does not sound like it even comes close to that number. There are probably 50 in RBS A alone. So, if only 54 are part of the distribution, it means many shuls did not ask - probably being they did not know about it. Is the distribution being handled fairly or not? I don't know, but 54 sounds like there is something fishy. Maybe only shuls that existed in those years of the over-collecting should have been included. Also, maybe shuls in neighborhoods where people pay less, and therefore probably were not over-collected from (or less was over-colected from them) should not be included.
This has nothing to do with being haredi or not haredi, but it has everything to do with improper administration of the city, from start to finish.
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