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Sigh of Relief as Israel Passes Biennial Budget

CBN

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel passed the 2017-2018 budget Friday morning after months of negotiations and an all-night wrap-up that began Thursday afternoon.
 
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon thanked all the ministers who worked on the biennial budget, promising to "continue to lead the Israeli economy with responsibility and discretion."
 
"We have a strong and developing economy," Kahlon said. "The new budget has significant drivers for growth, including billions in social budgeting."
 
The two-year budget provides additional funding for education, health care, and the elderly, reduces personal and corporate taxes, and includes across-the-board spending cuts.
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it "an important budget in which there is competition, reforms and development, the reduction of living costs as well as the reduction of gaps [between the affluent and the poor] – an important goal for us."
 
Netanyahu said the new budget spurs economic growth by reducing bureaucratic red tape, a point he's often made in the past.
 
"Regulation is strangling the economy," Netanyahu said. "We are opening the economy."
 
Education Minister Naftali Bennett said the funds allocated to the nation's school system will help strengthen the curriculum and reduce the number of students in overcrowded classes.

The funding also alleviated the fear of teachers being laid off due to cutbacks. Bennett said the budget paves the way for "years of educational excellence."
 
It also addresses air pollution, especially from older diesel-fueled vehicles by offering a government grant to scrap aged trucks and busses, with the hopes of removing some 80,000 older vehicles from the nation's highways.

 

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