After years of debates, the term "coalition funds" – a term used to describe wasteful spending aimed at catering to parties electoral bases so that they don't topple the government – appears to be on its way out – at least semantically.
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This week, as part of the discussion on the state budget, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the ministry's director general together with the attorney general and her team discussed abolishing the definition of the term.
Smotrich spoke in recent weeks with figures in the coalition and opposition to build consensus on stopping the practice of passing specific earmark legislation. Smotrich said that there is no point in confusing the public by having two separate sets of funding mechanisms and therefore the funds for "important" purposes will no longer be considered "Coalitional funds", but will enter the state budget omnibus bill.
In his view, if there are funds that are not defined as "important", they will not be included at all. As stated, this is not about abolishing the funds but about orderly incorporating them into the budget baseline.
In the government decision obtained by Israel Hayom, which was made in the budget discussion held last Monday, it is written that "the finance minister refers to the reality created in the allocation of funds based on coalitional agreements in a way that defines these funds is incoherent, creates ambiguity, leads to inefficient expenditure of resources, complicates the system and sometimes creates a double standard regarding what applies and what does not apply, who decides and how things are classified [ as coalition funds]"
The decision further states that "the prime minister instructs the finance minister to reexamine, in consultation with the budget commissioner and the accountant general, the budget structure and budgeting method in a way that will, among other things, maximize the abolition of the term 'coalitional funds' and base the budget on professional considerations. These changes will be incorporated no later than the 2025 budget".
In the last budget the Knesset passed, the coalition funds amounted to about 8 billion shekels (some 2 billion dollars), but that was ultimately slashed by about a third due to wartime constraints.
During the signing of the last coalition agreements between the parties in the Coalition, upon the establishment of the government, many funds were promised to the parties: 1 billion shekels for the police on behalf of Jewish Power; 1 billion shekels for health on behalf of Shas; food vouchers for low-income families as part of Deri's election promise; budget for the "New Horizon" education program in the unofficial education system; funds for security needs through and additional budgets intended for youth movements, pre-military preparatory programs, mission-driven groups, and more.
The new move to incorporate such funds into the state budget could not be implemented for the 2024 budget because the funds had already been classified as coalition funds and therefore could not be taken out in time before the legislation moved to advanced stages. But the decision will take effect as early as the 2025 budget. The prime minister and the attorney general have endorsed such reform backing to the move.
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