The Knesset approved the first reading of the budget arrangements bills last night, but two coalition parties abstained in the vote. Both Shas and the National Union say they will not vote for the budget unless certain significant changes are inserted. Last-minute changes have already cost one billion shekels, and the desired six-billion shekels cuts have been reduced to five billion. It is not clear when the next vote on the bills will be held.
Dr. Yitzchak Kadman of the Council for the Welfare of the Child has made a last-minute plea to cancel the planned 12% cut in child-welfare payments. \"It has to be understood,\" he told Arutz-7 today, \"that this is essentially a tax on children - a regressive tax, because even families that already live under the poverty line will pay it... The government is simply too lazy or too afraid to level taxes on the rich or on the stock market, so it takes from the children instead… The entire Western world grants some kind of benefits to families with children, whether with tax benefits or in other ways.\"
MK David Tal of Shas was asked why his party, which bills itself as a champion of social issues, abstained in the budget vote and did not vote against it. \"We reached some understandings,\" he explained, \"about the Negev Law, child allowances, allocations against violence in the family, and other similar social allocations… But we are not yet satisfied with the high cut in the child allowances.\"
Tal, Chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee, also discussed a new bill proposed by himself, MK Amir Peretz, and others, stipulating that company directors must not earn more than 15 times more than the company\'s lowest-paid workers. Tal explained that the problem of the gaps between the rich and the poor is a serious scourge that must be dealt with urgently. The proposal, which passed its preliminary reading yesterday, allows companies to grant bonuses to workers, but there must be \"transparency;\" MK Tal said that \"lower-paid workers would also be able to demand a share in the profits.\"
Dr. Yitzchak Kadman of the Council for the Welfare of the Child has made a last-minute plea to cancel the planned 12% cut in child-welfare payments. \"It has to be understood,\" he told Arutz-7 today, \"that this is essentially a tax on children - a regressive tax, because even families that already live under the poverty line will pay it... The government is simply too lazy or too afraid to level taxes on the rich or on the stock market, so it takes from the children instead… The entire Western world grants some kind of benefits to families with children, whether with tax benefits or in other ways.\"
MK David Tal of Shas was asked why his party, which bills itself as a champion of social issues, abstained in the budget vote and did not vote against it. \"We reached some understandings,\" he explained, \"about the Negev Law, child allowances, allocations against violence in the family, and other similar social allocations… But we are not yet satisfied with the high cut in the child allowances.\"
Tal, Chairman of the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee, also discussed a new bill proposed by himself, MK Amir Peretz, and others, stipulating that company directors must not earn more than 15 times more than the company\'s lowest-paid workers. Tal explained that the problem of the gaps between the rich and the poor is a serious scourge that must be dealt with urgently. The proposal, which passed its preliminary reading yesterday, allows companies to grant bonuses to workers, but there must be \"transparency;\" MK Tal said that \"lower-paid workers would also be able to demand a share in the profits.\"