The editorial firewall. The Prosperity Index is an analytical product of The Texas Dispatch. Index staff do not write news for the Dispatch, and Dispatch reporters do not evaluate bills for the Index. Ratings are produced to a published methodology that any reader can check before reading a rating.
How the Index reads a bill
Five states on each dimension: +2 strongly positive, +1 positive, 0 neutral, −1 negative, −2 strongly negative. We evaluate only the dimensions a bill actually moves. Silence costs nothing.
The reach of the effect — Negligible, Small, Moderate, Meaningful, Strong. Anchored to objective measures when they exist (fiscal note dollars, population affected, comparable-state data).
How sure we are the rating holds in implementation — high, moderate, low. Published separately from magnitude. The honest answer, not a false-precision number.