Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today, met with a forum of 15 mayors of the largest cities in the country in order hear their comments on the planned budget cuts – as per the draft Financial Arrangements Law – in local education and taxation budgets.  The mayors expressed their opposition to the expected cut and said that it is liable to harm services to residents.
 
Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Education Minister Yuli Tamir, Interior Minister Meir Shetrit, the directors-general of their ministries, Prime Minister's Office director-General Ra'anan Dinur and other senior officials also attended the meeting.
 
Prime Minister Olmert decided that there would be no retroactive cut in the authorities' education budgets and instructed Education Minister Dinur, PMO Dir.-Gen. Dinur and the Director of the Finance Ministry Budget Division to find budgetary solutions for the issue in order to enable the new school year to begin on time.  The Prime Minister, in consultation with Finance Minister Bar-On, also instructed Education Minister Tamir to establish a professional committee to consider the issue of budget differentials within the education system.  The committee will submit its conclusions to the Prime Minister by the end of November 2008.