The Index reviews each piece of legislation enacted into law or vetoed by Governor, going back to 2003, and gives each a ranking 0-1-2-3 - representing whether legislation advances or restrains liberty and then compiles into a score for each legislator and the Governor for each year. 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. The Liberty Index is meant to be a guide, not a final determination, of the quality of representation and performance of our elected officials, trusted with the awesome police power of government coercion, whose decisions affect the lives of millions. Many other factors, not reflected in actual votes, must be considered in evaluating the performance of a Legislator or the Governor. While the Liberty Index scores range from zero to 100, few will receive a perfect score. We hope this will provide a ranking of a specific legislator or the Governor in a perspective with their elected colleagues. 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". We have tried to make this "report card" objective, fair and most comprehensive analysis available on the overall performance of our state legislators and governor. Nevertheless, the ratings and rankings remain ours and we invite comments, corrections and explanations by Legislators themselves and by the Governor. For quick overview of legislation, click on:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/CL/Public/cl_view.cfm.
If you find any factual errors, we encourage you to correct
us. We welcome sensitive and sympathetic productive criticism. E-mail us at
This Liberty Index is produced by RGI Inc, the Conservative
Reform Network and The Conservative Reform PAC, Bob Guzzardi, President
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