Budget Crisis Stalks Jerusalem

A massive 2016 budget shortfall for the Jerusalem Municipality has already had ripple effects including a garbage strike which has left some neighborhoods of the capital drowning in uncollected trash and several projects designed to improve quality of life for residents put on hold. Mayor Nir Barkat has accused Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon is “deliberately starving” the city by refusing to grant a NIS 450 million allocation which would balance the books, but Kahlon has countered by demanding to know how the imbalance happened in the first place and asking what the city did with the large government grants it’s received in recent years. Political commentators have speculated that the impasse is likely related to the long-term political ambitions of both men and could continue for some time.