Will the public purse suffer from the coalition's expanded Norwegian Law?

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition seeks to expand the Norwegian Law to allow as many ministers and deputy ministers to resign from their roles as MKs as possible, the Knesset's department of budget control published a report detailing how the expanded bill will affect the Israeli parliament's finances.

The Norwegian Law currently enables between three to five ministers or deputy ministers per party to resign their positions as Knesset members in order to focus fully on their roles as ministers. This enables the next person on the party list to enter the Knesset.

In the new proposal, a third of factions with 18 seats or more will be allowed to resign from the Knesset in order to serve in the government. In the current Knesset, the Likud is the only faction with 18 or more MKs.

How much does an MK cost?

As per the department's budgetary examination, the expanded Norwegian Law will cost the state some NIS 1.95 million per new MK, meaning that the yearly expenses for all the new lawmakers entering the Knesset instead of the ministers and deputy ministers stand at some NIS 9,750,000.

How did the Knesset's budget control department come to these figures?

According to the Knesset department, the monetary implications of an expanded Noreweigan Law come down to the budgetary increase needed to facilitate the activities of all the new Knesset members.

These budgetary increases include the funding of the new MKs' monthly salary, hiring of parliamentary advisors and the establishment of an office for the new lawmakers, in addition to vehicle costs and any other indirect funding given to the MK.