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.

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 discernable impact on Liberty.  Most of these deal with minor administrative matters or “naming” roads and bridges

Tier 1 - Litttle Impact: General and Appropriations Act are classified at Tier 1 are those detrmined 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. 

All votes were counted in a lawmaker’s score, whether they were present to vote or not.  Absent legislators, however, did not gain or lose points.  Those who left office due to death, resignation or election to another office during the time period in question were not included.  Scores for lawmakers who entered office mid-term were adjusted based on votes taken while they were in office.

Once totaled, each lawmaker’s raw score was then converted to fit a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 representing the worst possible performance in defending Liberty and 100 representing the best possible performance.  Each lawmaker was then assigned a letter grade of A, B, C, D, or F.

Relative to the ideal record in defending Pennsylvanian’s Liberty, most state lawmakers performed average or below average.  However, “Liberty Grades” were assigned to lawmakers based on a “curve” related to their peers.