The cabinet will meet Thursday morning with the goal of approving the 2023-2024 state budget, but substantial disagreements and billions of shekels worth of budgets have yet to be solved.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who discussed the work on the budget several times this week, said that he hopes all of the ministers will show responsibility and not pass the budget limit.
Israel Hayom reported that party heads and ministers are threatening not to support the budget bill and even cause a coalition crisis if their demands are unmet.
For this reason, both the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office expect the discussions to continue through the night and even into Friday morning in an attempt to form a bill that's agreed on by all.
"Usually, the day before the budget is passed, we are more put together, but this time it seems like they left a lot to the last moment without any solution," said sources connected to the drafting of the bill. Is this just a strategy to lower the ministers' demands or a failure by the Finance Minister? We will find out on Friday, the deadline for the cabinet to approve the budget.
In the meantime, it would seem the fight is on multiple fronts, one of which being National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who wishes to raise salaries for police officers. The Finance Ministry opposes the raise in salary as it's written in the National Security Ministry's demand since it will lead to an economy-wide salary increase.
For Ben-Gvir, officers' salaries, quotas, and establishing a National Guard are red lines. At the time of publication, he is not ready to make concessions on what his staff calls "the tools for accomplishing the minister's goals" regarding governance.
National Security is not the only active front with which Smotrich has to contend; both Education Minister Yoav Kisch and Tourism Minister Haim Katz are threatening to vote against the budget bill if their demands are unmet. On Wednesday, Katz's staff were furious about the intention of cutting their ministry's budget and adding additional decrees, such as repealing VAT exemptions for tourists, which will complicate the ministry's fulfillment of its promise to boost tourism to the country. "They would only be saving a small sum of money," Katz's staffers claimed, "This will gain the Finance Ministry, an unsympathetic enemy."
Additional negotiations were held with Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, whose ministry's budget took a hit due to the coalition agreements with Otzma Yehudit and Shas, which both received the budgets of the ministry's "Cleaning Foundation" and "Green Patrol," and with Transporation Minister Miri Regev's regarding budget and infrastructure-rich projects.
"If I need to, I'll go back to being an MK," said Regev in a private conversation. "Traffic is the entire state of Israel's problem, not just Miri Regev's. The Finance Ministry staff only see the money. I believe that we will come to an understanding during meetings between Smotrich and Netanyahu."
In addition, regarding Netanyahu's campaign promise for free education for children under three, the Finance Ministry, with Smotrich's support, is attempting to subsidize parents of young children to save money instead of nationalizing early-childhood education.