Bash Localized Variable Occlusion

function update() { 
local -i VAR=45
VAR+=-1
VAR+=$1
echo $VAR
} 

 

$ VAR=3
$ update VAR 

 

And the output is??  

.. 88  

Why? Because $1 is VAR and the local VAR takes precedence control over 

VAR definitions, after dereferencing $1 the local VAR (now at 44) is added to itself.