Местное самоуправление

Economic independence and local development

• •We will promote, in a graduated, responsible, accompanied and supervised manner, strengthening the economic and fiscal independence of the authorities. We will promote expanding the authorities' own revenues and budgetary flexibility, and strengthen the financial backbone and the treasury function as the infrastructure for responsible budget management.
• •We will examine removing regulatory barriers to local economic development, and alongside each relief – we will provide ongoing and close supervision, so that development does not come at the expense of proper administration. We will promote the regulation and fair distribution of revenues from industrial zones, IDF bases and national infrastructure – according to regional and financial data, and without sectoral or political considerations. The tools will be adapted to each authority's capacity, with an emphasis on building capacity in weak authorities.

Public and community space

• •We will promote an inclusive and respectful Judaism, responsibly and through dialogue, by expanding the independence of local authorities and communities to shape the public space, the priorities and the cultural responses in line with their character and values – while protecting the basic values of the Jewish and democratic state.
• •Each authority will be able to shape its own Shabbat and public space, and to provide commerce, religion, leisure, culture and transportation services in line with the way of life of all its residents and the balances required between the different communities. Decisions of this kind will require a council decision by a special majority, a public participation process and ratification in a by-law – to ensure that the policy represents all the communities in a balanced way.
• •We will lead the transfer of the management of religious services from the religious councils to the local authorities, while ensuring continuity of service and preserving workers' rights, and the selection of city rabbis by the authority's council, in line with the representation of the different communities.

Yashar! For Local Government

• •Yashar! sees a need to move from a centralized, hierarchical system of subordination and dependence to a system of partnership and mutual relations, based on a clear division of responsibility and authority among three tiers of policy authority: national, regional and local. The state will continue to bear responsibility and authority for setting national policy and strategic goals, ensuring equality in services, setting standards, oversight and tailored budgeting; the regional tier, based on regional cooperation among local authorities and clusters, will handle challenges that cross municipal borders and require a broad, long-term regional view; and the local authority will receive the authority, resources and flexibility to advance place-based and community-based policy and to shape the services closest to residents' lives.
• •The local authority will receive the independence and the standing it deserves as the representative of the local community by virtue of its elected democratic status, and not merely as an executive arm of the government – while preserving individual rights, the rules of proper administration and the basic principles of the Jewish and democratic state. At the same time, representatives of local government will be permanent partners in shaping decisions that concern the authorities – and not a body invited to respond after the fact or a veto player that advances only narrow municipal goals – because with authority comes responsibility.
• •The aim of the change is to enable the state to focus on its national roles – policy, reducing gaps, ensuring equality and rights, national infrastructure, budgeting, oversight and enforcement – while increasing the authorities' capacity to manage and deliver quality, accessible and tailored service. This is a direct application of Yashar!'s vision of a state that removes barriers and rewards initiative and quality of execution, but not at the expense of governability and state values; that believes in freedom and diversity, yet is responsible for all its citizens and demands accountability along with the granting of authority.

The principle of subsidiarity

• •Local authority - to the local authority, the tier closest and most accessible to the resident, able to carry out policy efficiently, equally and responsibly; an issue that crosses municipal borders and has a regional logic - to the regional tier; basic rights, national interest or a national public good - to the state. Decentralization will be carried out responsibly and in cooperation with the local authorities and the bodies that represent them.

Gradualism and differentiation

• •Decentralization will be carried out according to the readiness of the democratic institutions and the professional, managerial and economic capacity of each authority, on the basis of defined indicators. Authorities that lack the required readiness will be supported with guidance and resources that will build these skills - because decentralization is not only for the strong. Every transfer of responsibility will be accompanied by the transfer of the necessary powers, manpower and resources, and decentralization will not be used as a means of shifting costs and risks from the government to the authorities.

Oversight, control, enforcement and withdrawal

• •The emphasis will shift from prior approvals and micro-management to standards, transparency, reporting, after-the-fact control and comparative performance indicators. An authority that does not meet the rules and targets over time - after receiving professional guidance and an opportunity to correct - will have the decentralized powers taken from it, in whole or in part, until it again proves its capability. Intervention mechanisms will also be defined for cases of dysfunction, to ensure adequate service for all residents – because local authorities are not the 'backyard' of the state.

The local tier

• •Will deal with areas directly related to the resident that require close familiarity with the field or are affected by the community's characteristics: education, welfare, religious services and public space, local economic development, culture, community and leisure, and emergency responses. The involvement of local government will be significant but not exclusive, particularly in "mixed" issues that include national considerations such as education, welfare and equality.

The national tier

• •Will remain responsible for security, policing and enforcement; for planning land policy and national infrastructure; for setting binding standards; for redistributing resources and reducing gaps; for protecting basic rights and providing national services such as health. The state will set a uniform and binding service standard that will ensure every citizen, everywhere, an equal level of service and rights. The transfer of powers to the authorities does not harm the contract between the state and its citizens or its commitment to them.

Ministry, decentralization cabinet and inter-ministerial staff

• •We will reposition the Ministry of the Interior as the "Ministry for Local Government and Regional Development" – from a ministry of approvals, prior oversight and control, to a ministry that accompanies, assists and develops the authorities, sets standards and measures results.
• •We will establish a standing ministerial committee on decentralization and regional affairs, headed by the Minister for Local Government and Regional Development, and a professional inter-ministerial staff team to formulate policy, set priorities, approve plans and resolve disputes between the ministries and representatives of local government.

Mapping of powers and a capability index

• •Implementing the reform requires a clear institutional architecture that will ensure decentralization advances in an orderly, graduated, procedural and measurable way – and not as a one-time declaration. We will promote staff work to map the powers and responsibilities that will be transferred to the authorities, learning from mappings done in the past and with a commitment to meaningful decentralization of power and authority and not only to steps for reducing regulation.
• •We will provide a toolbox for implementation: a transparent and broad quality and capability index for the various authorities; a package of incentives for government ministries that promote meaningful decentralization and for authorities that adopt infrastructure supporting decentralization; a legislative framework and administrative steps to support the decentralization of powers, and a dedicated program for guidance and capacity building in weak authorities. Before applying it across the board, we will run a pilot accompanied by evaluation research in selected authorities and regions.

Legislative anchoring

• •We will support a move to advance a "Basic Law: Local Government", on condition that it is done with broad agreement and real discussion with the authorities themselves. Alongside it, we will examine limiting legislation with budgetary implications for the authorities, and set up a mechanism of annual agreements between the government and the local government organizations before the budget is submitted – in a balanced, professional manner and without political considerations.
• •We will anchor a "numerator for local government" – a mechanism that will require the government and the Knesset to measure in advance the cumulative cost that any legislation, regulation or government decision imposes on the authorities, and will prevent shifting costs onto the authorities without coverage.

Strengthening local democracy and proper administration

• •We will promote strengthening the democratic mechanisms and proper administration in the authorities. We will strengthen the independence and standing of the treasurer, the legal adviser and the authority's comptroller, and ensure that the statutory positions in all authorities are filled. We will expand the council members' powers of oversight and access to information, promote financial compensation for council members, and establish the status of "head of the opposition" with defined rights, as a balance to the "strong mayor" model.
• •We will require accessible and full publication of the budget book, contracts and engagements, protocols, support grants, allocations and audit reports, and work to broadcast council meetings, as complementary civic oversight. Expanding authority requires closing the door to corruption and conflicts of interest: we will work to prevent criminal elements from entering decision-making and the management of the authorities, and we will fight corruption and the collection of protection money at the local level.

Human capital in the authorities

• •We will strengthen the professional backbone of the authorities, as a condition for sustainable decentralization: we will improve pay conditions for senior staff and promote a differentiated compensation model, strengthen the standing of the authority's director general and the management ranks, promote mobility between the authorities and the civil service and cadet programs for professions suffering from recruitment failures, expand the autonomy to manage human capital in the authorities, and support the salary costs of weak authorities – while maintaining a binding professional standard, equality and transparency.

Service to the citizen – the test of results

• •The test of the results of decentralization is the quality of service to the citizen. We will move from measuring procedures and inputs to measuring the quality and accessibility of public services, proper and coordinated use of budget priorities, and the actual service experience – response times, physical and digital accessibility, and full transparency toward the resident. The authority will receive freedom along the way, and will be measured by what reaches the resident in the end.

Education and welfare

• •We will expand the local authority's powers in education and the managerial flexibility in schools, and move to shekel-based differentiated budgeting per student, adjusted to socioeconomic background and needs. The scope of flexibility will be set according to the authority's capacity, all subject to the core curriculum and the national goals and standards, while preserving teachers' rights. Alongside this, we will transfer powers and budgets on informal education to the authorities.
• •We will expand the flexibility and authority of local government in building local responses and adapting service to the community's needs. At the same time, we will re-examine the matching funding system (Matching), which prevents weak authorities from realizing budgets and deepens inequality, and we will ensure full or increased funding for essential services and protected populations.

The regional tier

• •Will deal with areas that require economies of scale, long-term policy and planning that crosses municipal borders: regional transportation, spatial planning, infrastructure, employment zones, waste and environment, and regional economic development. The regional tier does not replace the local authority, but enables pooling of capabilities, reducing duplication and coordination. It will include flexible mechanisms - metropolitan authorities around the large metropolitan hubs, alongside clusters and flexible, updating regional frameworks that rely on agreements and cooperation among local authorities in different functional regions.

Regional tier

• •We will develop "supra-authority" mechanisms and build government incentives for a new regional approach – voluntary and flexible – based on cooperation among the authorities and clusters. We will promote multi-year regional development contracts, based on results on the ground, and examine establishing statutory supra-authority mechanisms in the areas of transportation (such as metropolitan authorities), environment and waste, planning, infrastructure and economic development.