Chief Executive magazine’s annual “Best and Worst States for Business” saw the publication’s staff ask more than 600 executives to rate states based on criteria such as taxes and government regulation.

Connecticut fell seven places from its previous ranking, leaving the Nutmeg State in 45th place—and in the same boat as infamous anti-business outposts California and New York.

“This news doesn’t surprise folks in Connecticut’s business community, who just a year ago watched super majority legislators propose a grab of corporate profits to help close the state’s budget hole,” said Piscopo, a member of the Finance Committee. “If our goal is to help spur private sector job growth, we can’t keep leaning on businesses to remedy Connecticut’s budget problems.”

Connecticut faces a projected budget deficit of $3.5 billion. Unemployment remains high.

Piscopo, who represents Thomaston, Harwinton, Burlington and Litchfield, contends that helping businesses grow would produce a more substantial and lasting source of revenue than additional taxes.

“Connecticut rates poorly, but that doesn’t we can’t carve a new path for businesses,” he said.

To start with, attaching a jobs impact statement to each piece of legislation would give legislators perspective on how a proposal would affect a company, Piscopo said.

Piscopo again called for repealing the business startup tax, and he said Connecticut must continue to streamline its permitting process for businesses—red tape that’s giving employers headaches.

Piscopo said that House Democrats have overextended themselves and Connecticut, which is facing a roughly $4 billion budget hole. And unfortunately, he said, the majority party continues to ignore the problem.

“Usually, when you’re in a deep financial hole you put the shovel away,” Piscopo said. “But in Hartford, it seems like we’ve got an even bigger problem—folks in the majority have keys to a backhoe and they’re digging a hole like none of us have seen before.”

The afternoon vote capped a turbulent couple of weeks for the state’s Citizens Election Program.

The legislature convened July 31 to tweak sweeping campaign finance reform laws enacted in 2005—laws struck down recently in federal court. Court rulings declared the prohibition of lobbyist money unconstitutional as well as supplemental grants triggered through spending by a candidate’s opponent

Among the solutions offered by super-majority Democrats was a provision increasing the grant for major-party gubernatorial candidates by $3 million to $6 million. Democrats passed their plan—rejecting a viable Republican—but couldn’t gain enough support within their party to prevent the eventual veto from Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Democrats in the state senate regrouped Aug. 5, voting to override Rell’s veto and send the bill to the House for the 106-30 vote Friday.

Malloy is the lone gubernatorial candidate participating in the Citizens Election Program, and Republicans, including Piscopo, wondered whether politics played a role in the vote.

“This is a bad move in these rough financial times,” said Piscopo, a member of the legislature’s Finance Committee. “Legislators have flipped their votes to suit the needs of just one statewide candidate—a path I believe is contrary to the spirit and intent of the program.”

Piscopo, who represents Thomaston, Harwinton, Burlington and Litchfield, urged his constituents to register for CT Alert via a recently-launched Web site www.ctalert.gov. The system provides a way for authorities to get critical information to hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in times of emergencies, such as natural disasters or even a public health crisis. Local and state officials teamed to develop it.

“Folks in law enforcement, or anybody in crisis management, really, would say that communication is among the most important aspects of a response plan,” he said. “Public safety officials in Connecticut are taking that principle seriously. There’s no doubt in my mind that this system will help people of this state.”

Some communities in Connecticut used the system during headline-grabbing spring storms that knocked out power and wreaked havoc in the lives of residents.

Sign up for the alert announcements here.

The downgrade shouldn’t surprise anyone. Last October, the rating agencies “degraded’’ Connecticut’s rating with a “negative outlook’’ because of the excessive borrowing to pay bills in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

Not one Republican voted for the state’s current budget, although Governor Rell chose not to veto the tax and spending plan last September. That budget emptied the Rainy Day Fund and relied on federal stimulus money to further fill the budget holes—billions of dollars that will not be available next year.

Despite the warning last October, legislative Democrats still decided to simply put more of our state’s operating expenses on the credit card this spring – hence the downgrade.

Piscopo joined his Republican colleagues in repeatedly offering detailed, common sense alternative budgets that were rejected by the majority Democrats in Hartford. Those plans were based on smaller government payrolls, shared responsibility for getting rid of the state’s deficits and rolling back spending to 2009 levels. The Republican path required no borrowing to pay for operating expenses or tax increases, he said.

All of the Democratic shell-game budgeting will lead to bigger financial problems, Piscopo said, problems that will have to be confronted by the next legislature and governor. By every estimate the budget deficit for 2011 is expected to be $3.4 billion.

Financial markets do not engage in politics—they only determine whether Connecticut has come forth with an honest way to pay its bills, Piscopo said. Connecticut’s legislature has not measured up.

What’s more, the proposal pushed by the two Litchfield County legislators called for Jobs Impact Statements to accompany bills and amendments—a move addressing the business community’s complaint that the legislature habitually passes bills without considering how they affect employers.

Several Democrats spoke in favor of the proposal touted by Rigby, Piscopo and their colleagues, yet those super-majority legislators inexplicably voted against it.

“If you talked to any legislator three months ago, ‘jobs’ was among the first words from their mouths,” Rigby said. “But today, with only a few days left until the session’s end, we’ve little, if anything to show for it. This plan is immediate—it’s something that would give unemployed people a bit of hope.”

Piscopo, a Finance Committee member like Rigby, agreed and said Connecticut sits at a crucial point.

“Unfortunately, the word is out about our state legislature and its history for giving employers the cold shoulder,” Piscopo said. “We’ve got too many mandates, too many taxes. This plan would break the ice—it would signal that we’re ready to give businesses the freedom and support they need to thrive here.”

Republicans attached their pro-jobs proposal to a Democrat plan to create a commission to study how the state can generate more revenue—in other words, tax residents and businesses.

The Republican proposal was rejected 105-38.

The jobs-creation proposal included:

• Repeal of the Business Entity Tax on all businesses.
• Creates Small business revolving loan fund (direct loans only)–$25 million cap on the program.
• Job Creation Tax Credit Program—creates a tax credit for employers who employ 100 employees or less. Employers may receive a $4,800/per employee credit for every hire off of unemployment.
• Requires that Jobs Impact Statements accompany bills and amendments
• Create DECD ombudsman to help streamline the permitting process for businesses.