[§21F-1]  Purpose.  The legislaturefinds that most states have a separate fiscal policy office in the legislativebranch that works effectively to provide the legislature with necessary revenueand expenditure data and analyses from which economic and fiscal policies aredeveloped.  In Hawaii, the legislature relies on the economic and fiscalanalyses of the executive branch and private sector.  The legislature believesthat this dependency creates an inherent conflict of interest that precludesthe legislature from operating independently.

Modern legislatures have become sophisticateddata gatherers and analysts, on par with the executive and judiciary branches. Over the last five years, this shift has been accelerated through thedevelopment of professional, highly specialized legislative staff.

Since Hawaii's legislature meets for only fourmonths of the year, it has come to rely heavily on the use of session-onlylegislative staff or employees on loan from the executive branch.  In 1988, thestate house and senate together employed six hundred twenty-one session staffmembers as compared to one hundred fifty-one permanent employees.  Only NewYork, the state with the most legislative staff in the country, had moresession staff than Hawaii.

The purpose of this chapter is to establish apermanent legislative committee to provide the legislature with information,facts, and analyses concerning fiscal, budgetary, and tax matters of theState.  It is the legislature's intent that the committee, with the assistanceof the office of the legislative analyst, shall perform independent, in-depthanalysis of the State's budget, revenues and expenditures, economic conditions,and tax policies. [L 1990, c 347, pt of §2]