Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday that the budget for 2013 should be a one-year budget, rather than the two-year model he has proposed. An exception should be made during years in which there are national elections, he explained, addressing the weekly cabinet meeting.

The years 2014 and 2015 should share a two-year budget, he opined.

Three weeks earlier Steinitz had expressed different views. As elections were canceled, he said the move would allow the government to pass a two-year budget for 2013 and 2014.

At the time he said he was not completely sure if the plan was practical. Legal issues regarding the influence of one government’s policies on the next may have played a role in his change of heart.

Steinitz has pushed the two-year model as a way to increase economic stability. He has predicted that the model will eventually be adopted worldwide.

Some fellow ministers oppose the switch to a two-year model, arguing that it is not flexible enough to allow Israel to respond in a timely manner to economic crises. (IsraelNationalNews © 2012 06/03/12)