News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The Union of Local Authorities (ULA) announced that its members will not cooperate with the Knesset’s recent decision to charge a drought tax on extra water usage. According to the bill, municipal water companies are supposed to collect the tax from consumers. "The Union of Local Authorities intends to instruct the mayors not to collect the drought tax," said ULA chairman Shlomo Buhbut. "Just as the courts forbade IDF troops from obeying an illegal order, we will not obey an unjust law that is based on distortions and is basically illegal.”

"If the Ministry of Finance dares, it is invited to hire the services of private collection companies and collect the fine itself,” said Buhbut. “We aren’t bailiffs for stupidity, and we won't panic at threats to send us to jail if we don’t collect the water fine. We won't make the lives of our residents miserable."