Special reports are made on State operations and functions at the direction of the Commission or at the request of the General Assembly. Many of these special reports require elaborate statistical applications to assess policy and program effectiveness. The General Assembly typically directs studies by passing joint resolutions of the House and Senate, or by including language in the Appropriation Act. The Commission authorizes project initiation, and the project is assigned to a staff team. A workplan is then prepared which documents the research approach to be used.
Research is completed by the assigned team.
After the team completes its research, it prepares a report which is reviewed internally and subjected to quality assurance standards. Subsequently, an exposure draft is distributed to appropriate agencies for their review and comment. A revised exposure draft, which also contains agency comments, is presented to the Commission at one of its monthly public meetings. An oral presentation of study findings and recommendations is also made at the meeting. The Commission authorizes publication of the study as a legislative document.