[§21F-1]  Purpose.  The legislature
finds that most states have a separate fiscal policy office in the legislative
branch that works effectively to provide the legislature with necessary revenue
and expenditure data and analyses from which economic and fiscal policies are
developed.  In Hawaii, the legislature relies on the economic and fiscal
analyses of the executive branch and private sector.  The legislature believes
that this dependency creates an inherent conflict of interest that precludes
the legislature from operating independently.



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



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



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