As the marathon Cabinet meeting on the budget for 2009-10 continues, objections persist to the entire budget-preparing process. One group wants to do away with the Budget Arrangements Law.
The annual budget – a biannual budget, this time - is always passed in the Knesset together with an Arrangements Law, which includes many different clauses on a variety of issues, some of them not directly related to the budget. The Forum to Nullify the Arrangements Law has turned to the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers and Knesset Members, asking them not to pass a law they feel is “anti-democratic and anti-social.”
The Arrangements Law is a long series of clauses - each of which could be a law unto itself - that are approved every year in one package deal together with the Budget Law. Critics say that the various clauses do not undergo the rigorous legislative process applied to other laws. They are instead formulated by Finance Ministry clerks and hastily approved under the pressure of the annual budget deadline.
First enacted in 1986 in light of a severe financial crisis which saw triple-digit inflation rates, the first version of the Arrangements Law had 42 different clauses. This amount hovered around the 20-40 rate for the next 15 years, reaching 100 clauses in 2002. The next year, 2003, saw a record high of no fewer than 169 different clauses, while the 2007 version had 86.
Former Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Mishael Heshin has said that the law "makes a mockery" of the Knesset.
Letter to Ministers and MKs
In a letter to the elected officials, the Forum states, “It is known that the Arrangements Law was born as a temporary measure during a period of economic emergency, but it has become a tool in the hands of the executive branch to create policy by detouring the Knesset.”
“As of this moment,” the letter states, “the public does not know exactly what the Cabinet will be discussing. Even worse, it is doubtful whether the ministers themselves have a comprehensive picture of the proposed budget for 2009-10. The wave of proposals that was passed in a panic has deluged the ministers, most of whom have been in office for only a month or two and have barely learned their jobs. The tight schedule does not enable them to acquire rudimentary understanding of the very large range of issues. This could easily cause catastrophic harm to weakened population sectors.’
Specifically, the Forum demands that the Cabinet discuss budget issues only after all the issues are completely and coherently presented to the ministers, giving them enough time to study them.
The Forum also demands that the ministers make their voices heard against the process that prevents them from studying the issues before having to vote on them.
“We demand that the following issues be removed from debate," the letter states: "Those that nullify previous Knesset legislation, those that are not directly related to the upcoming national budget, and those that represent a reform or major change and require a deep discussion in the Cabinet and Knesset. These issues should not be approved in hasty legislation, even if they are linked to the budget.”