The Liberty Index is designed to give our opinion of how well or how poorly the Pennsylvania Governor, House and Senators members (254 people total from a Pennsylvania population of more than 12.2 million) have advanced or restrained Individual Liberty. In particular, Economic Freedom, the ability and freedom to spend your own money in the manner you think best for you, your family and your community.

The Liberty Index is intended to measure the extent to which the Free Market, the individual decisions of millions of Pennsylvania residents, is advanced or restrained.

Unlike most ratings presented by limited interest organizations that publish ratings, we have analyzed every single bill that became an Act or was vetoed by the governor from 2003 to 2007. This rating is a completely unbiased accounting of votes that were evaluated according to a simple question: "Does this Act expand or contract the Liberty of the people of Pennsylvania?" Each law and note was assigned a weight according to our determination of its relative impact on Liberty, and all members of the General Assembly and the Governor are rated on public record of actual votes. To the extent that a vote evidences support for Big Government and against Constitution Limited Government, the vote is considered a negative vote.

Votes that expand government and place economic and personal decisions at the discretion of a few elected (254 people) are considered "against liberty". Promoting the government as a source of businesses and jobs which produce goods and provide services and that direct resources away from savings, investment and creation of businesses that create jobs, are considered "against liberty".

Legislation passed by the General Assembly is divided into two categories, General and Appropriate Acts.
General Acts include law governing citizen-to-citizen and business-to-business relations, regulations, the tax code, and the capital budget.
Appropriations Acts authorize state government to spend money.

Appropriations Acts were evaluated according to how much the law increased spending.  Spending reductions were classified as increasing Liberty, as were spending increases at or below the previous three years, combined rates of inflation and population growth. Spending increases above this factor were classified as decreasing Liberty. For appropriation bills that grew no higher than the likely growth rate of Pennsylvanians' ability to pay for higher government spending, both yes and no votes were considered "For Liberty". A "YEA" vote was recorded as a vote for Liberty; however, in this case, a "NAY" vote was also deemed as a vote for Liberty because the bill's defeat could have reduced government spending.

Each Act is classified into a four-tiered 'Liberty-impact' rating system: 0, 1, 2, or 3.

Tier: 0 - No Impact Bills classified at Tier 0 were seen as having no discernible impact on Liberty. Most of these deal with minor administrative matters or "naming" roads and bridges.
Tier: 1 - Little Impact General and Appropriations Act are classified at Tier 1 are those determined to have a small and/or narrowly focused impact on Pennsylvanian’s Liberty.
Tier: 2 - Moderate Impact General and Appropriations Acts classified at Tier 2 are those determined to have a moderate impact on the Liberty of individual Pennsylvanians or groups of Pennsylvanians.
Tier: 3 - Major Impact General Acts classified at Tier 3 are determined to be those that had a major impact on Pennsylvanians; individual or collective Liberty.

Using the weighting system for each vote level described previously and taking into account the treatment of votes on Appropriations Acts that increased spending at rates less than population growth and inflation, lawmakers can earn:

1. A maximum of 190 and a minimum of -172 points for the Tier 1 votes.
2. A maximum of 760 and a minimum of -627.83 points for the Tier 2 votes.
3. A maximum of 1710 and a minimum -1710 of for the Tier 3 votes.

In total, a lawmaker can earn a maximum of 2,660 points or a possible minimum of -2,509.83 points.