From what I can see, that's only true for parameters passed to stored procedures. For T-SQL queries the parameters take on the native data type of the SSIS variable. There isn't any way to assign a data type. I have changed the data type of the variable to Int32. Additionally, I have changed the stored proc that assigned the value to the variable explicitly CASTing the variable to an INT. Still doesn't work. However, if I hard code a zero in the query instead of using the parameter it works just fine.

This would seem to indicate that the value of the parameter is taking a hit somewhere. I'm going to try and capture the query in profiler and see what value appears. I can't think of anything else to try. Even more discouraging is that even if I prove the parameter is getting overwritten I'm not sure what I can do about it.