Shohat: Olmert will ignore poverty
Former finance minister Knesset Member Avraham Shohat, who retired from political life this week, said that current finance minister Ehud Olmert will 'spill a NIS billion in an apparent war on poverty'
"Finance Minister Ehud Olmert is pretending to be in a war on poverty. It's true, he did establish some committee, and when it finishes its sessions, he'll take a NIS billion, transfer them to causes that seem like they're part of the war on poverty, and tell journalists and Labor party minister, look, I'm fighting," said former finance minister, Knesset Member Avraham Shohat (Labor), in an interview to Ynet as he retires from political life.
Shohat: Poverty will increase (Photo: Oren Agamon)
Why apparent? Why are you sure that he won't effectively fight poverty?
"In order to fight poverty seriously, you need money. Our population is growing by 2 percent a year, and if the state budget is only growing by 1 percent, the budget must be increased. For that reason, there must be a reform in tax, an increase in wealth taxation, which is still very, very low, in fact it's almost nonexistent. Decreases in direct taxation must end, they are anti-progressive and anti-social. Olmert would never take such steps."
Why? Due to his links with the wealthy elite?
"I don't want to answer that question"
Why is it that when you were finance minister, there were no taxes on the wealthy?
"I failed on wealth taxation. Once, in 1994, due to technical reasons, and another time, in 2000, because of political reasons. I lost in both battles, but I won this important role, because since the conclusions of the Ben-Basset Committee were published, everyone understood that wealth must be taxed, and that is because of initiatives. In '94, when I said that stock market profits should be taxed, I was looked at as if I was crazy, and market forces boycotted me."
How should money be invested on order to combat poverty?
"The destruction of poverty won't come from an annual budget. Professional preparations must be made, so that people can really go out and find work. There must be differential investment in education, and the education budget must be increases only for the lowest echelons. There must be real investment in the two weakest populations, the ultra-Orthodox and the Arabs. In addition, I think the government seriously exaggerated when it made it harder to receive unemployment benefits. We turned into the toughest country in the western world on this issue, and that's not appropriate."
"When I was finance minister, I transferred NIS four billion to infrastructure, to education, to research, and to development. I expanded the education budget by 70 percent, increased the road budget by three times, and upped the water and sewage budget by ten times. I also dramatically increased the budget for the country's chief scientist, and for higher learning. That, in addition to dozens of projects for public transport and environmental development. These are the things that must be done to combat poverty, and today they are not being done."
