Over the past few years, the General Assembly has become increasingly cognizant of complaints from local governments about the State mandating the provision of services or the upgrading of existing services, but not providing adequate State funds to carry out the mandates; In 1978, the legislature created the Commission on Local Fiscal Impact for the purpose of examining this question in order to determine the extent of the problem and to recommend possible solutions if necessary. House Joint Resolution 109, created the Commission.

The Commission met several times during the year, both by itself and with other study committees considering closely related questions. At several of its meetings, it invited officials from state agencies to describe the State mandates imposed on the localities in their areas. The members decided it would be unrealistic to attempt to comply fully with the terms of the study resolution. In the first place, its directives were so broad and sweeping that it would take significantly more than the one year allotted to accomplish them. Secondly, the members decided they did not have sufficient expertise to evaluate mandates and regulations in all the existing areas.