Report: city hall revenues increased by 3 billion shekels, discounts decreased, 40% of complaints about Arnona are justified

Among other things, the Public Complaints Bureau of the Office of the State Comptroller examines citizen complaints against local authorities regarding various aspects of Arnona and assists complainants in their interactions with municipalities. Often, during the verification of individual complaints, systemic failures in the work of local authorities are revealed.

Despite the fact that the total collection of arnona during this time increased by more than 3 billion shekels – from 28.1 billion in 2021 to 31.2 billion in 2023, the efficiency of collection of payments decreased: the percentage of tax collection fell from 74% in 2022 to 72% in 2023. In parallel with this, there is an increase in the debt burden on the population: the Arnona debt of residents and businesses increased to 11.9 billion shekels, and this amount was formed after the write-off of bad debts. In addition, the total amount of discounts and tax exemptions provided decreased from NIS 7.6 billion in 2022 to NIS 7.3 billion in 2023.

Between January 2023 and November 2025, the Bureau received 937 Arnona complaints, of which 40% were found to be substantiated or resolved in favor of the complainants during the review. Thanks to the intervention of the Ombudsman, a total of NIS 376,508 was returned to citizens. The analysis showed that the vast majority of justified complaints (70.3%) are related to violations of rules, and 24.1% are related to government actions contrary to the law or without appropriate authority. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the share of illegal actions in the field of arnona collection is almost five times higher than the average for other complaints, which is only 5%.

Matanyahu Engelman, State Comptroller and Ombudsman: “Along with the activities of local authorities in collecting arnona, they are obliged to act correctly and effectively in matters of providing discounts to residents and businesses who are eligible for this. This is the duty of the authorities to their citizens. The last two years that have passed since the tragedy of October 7, 2023 have become the most difficult test, both in the field of security and in economic terms. In this reality, behavior that deprives residents of their rights in violation of the law and good governance rules. The Home Secretary and local council leaders must take action to correct the problems identified in this report.”

Cities with the most complaints

The Ombudsman analyzed the number of complaints relative to the population (per 100,000 inhabitants). The “leaders” in terms of the number of complaints were:

Tiberias (64.2 complaints per 100 thousand inhabitants)

Harish (60.5)

Beit Shemesh (45.6)

Netivot (41.9)

Lod (40.7)

The highest percentage of justified complaints was recorded in the following municipalities:

Harish (60% of complaints found to be justified)

Tiberias (58.1%)

Jerusalem (50.9%)

Beer Sheva (47.2%)

Lod (41.7%)

What are citizens complaining about?

The largest number of complaints (41.8%) relate to discounts and tax exemptions. Citizens report denials of social discounts, problems obtaining exemptions for empty properties, difficulties calculating discounts for businesses during the war, and a lack of automatic extension of benefits. Other complaint topics include: quality of service (lack of digital services or, conversely, excessive digitalization that is inaccessible to older people); long wait times and poor performance of call centers; bureaucratic red tape and failure to provide information; errors in real estate classification and tax calculation.

In the category of complaints about the quality of service (employee attitude, accessibility, responses to requests), the percentage of justified complaints reaches 63%.

An interesting gender aspect was also noted: men complain about problems with arnona much more often than women (65.3%), although in other areas women complain more often than men.