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Data Collection
This study relies primarily on data from 57 telephone interviews with legislative fiscal analysts,
legislators on appropriation or budget committees, agency personnel, and executive budget analysts in
four states: Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, and Maine. The legislative fiscal offices in the four states were
selected for study because each represents the most common organizational structure for legislative fiscal
staff, the joint nonpartisan legislative fiscal office (Donlan and Weberg 1999). The interviews were
conducted from October 2001 through July 2002 with the number of individuals interviewed in each state
ranging from thirteen to fifteen. Legislative fiscal analysts with primary responsibility for the
Corrections, Education, or Medicaid budgets were questioned. Subsequently, legislators, agency
personnel, and executive budget analysts responsible for developing the Corrections, Education, and
Medicaid budgets were also interviewed. The selection of specific policy areas and the corresponding
legislators, agency personnel, and executive budget analysts was an effort to strengthen the validity of the
fiscal analysts’ self-assessment of their duties and roles in the development of the state budget.
The interviews were semi-structured with open-ended and close-ended questions, allowing the
interviewer to probe respondent comments. The legislative fiscal analysts were asked to 1) identify their
primary duties during the period of legislative decision making on the budget, 2) describe the nature and
frequency of contact with legislators, agency personnel, and executive budget analysts, 3) discuss the
most useful types of information provided to legislators, and 4) assess their role in the development of the
state budget. For purposes of validity, legislators, agency personnel (agency directors, agency legislative
liaisons, and agency fiscal officers), and executive budget analysts were asked similar questions regarding
their relationship with the legislative fiscal analyst including the usefulness of information provided to
legislators, the frequency and nature of contact, and the most appropriate role played by the legislative
fiscal analyst in the development of the state budget.
Types of Duties Performed by Legislative Fiscal Analysts
Legislative fiscal analysts described and provided examples of the activities that they perform for
the legislature when it is making decisions about the budget. The interview comments revealed some
Convention