I'm not sure what is more interesting in this article about Bet Shemesh politics - either that the Haredi coalition members are fighting with each other and with the mayor, or that the government is on the verge of appointing an accompanying comptroller to the city because of how bad the finances of the city have been handled and how bad the financial situation is because of it.
As reported on Radio Kol Hai:
Basically, the fight is over budgets and budget cuts - like almost always. The mayor, Moshe Abutbol, has decided he has no choice but to put in place budget cuts across the board - in every department in the city.
Obviously, they, and everyone else, will always be upset when their budgets get slashed, but they are particularly upset about this one. Some of the coalition members think that the Haredi education budget should not have been cut, even if it means cutting other things in its place. Abutbol decided that among the cuts, he has to also cut, either entirely or at least a large portion of, the budget for an educational project run by Yad Eliezer (the city has been giving them 400,000nis for this project, with yad Eliezer committing to match it 2:1).
Abutbol has a 40 million shekel deficit, and plans to cut the budget by 25 million shekel in order to fix it. The city has grown in recent years, as its expenses have, but the revenue has not. The taxes from industrial zones has not grown, because thousands of new residents have moved in but no new industrial zones were built or existing ones expanded, and not enough new businesses moved to town. As well, building usually lets the money flow into municipal coffers, but in this case, much of the building was only approved with the money going to giving the Old City a face lift, so that money is not available for the city budgets. Also, the government has cut the money it gives as assistance to the city.
According to the report, the city is about to come to a standstill, and even the cultural services will be slashed during this year due to lack of funding.
This has led to fighting in the coalition. Degel and Koach have joined together to vote against Abutbol recently, especially because of the cut to Yad Eliezer..
Because of this fight, Abutbol still has not been able to pass the budget for the new year. Degel and Koach voted against it in a recent vote.
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
