For the second consecutive year, CEOs have named the Bay State one of the worst states to do business.

Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 51 again this year, beating only California, New York, Michigan and New Jersey.

Neighboring Connecticut didn’t do much better, coming in at 45. Other New England state fared a bit better: New Hampshire ranked 18th, Rhode Island came in 39th, Maine was 37th and Vermont was 36th.

Texas was named the No. 1 state in which to do business and California was the worst. North Carolina maintained its No. 2 rank, while Tennessee rose two positions to third. Virginia was up three slots from last year to No. 4 while Nevada notched a one spot gain to claim the fifth spot.

Chief Executive magazine’s annual "Best & Worst States" survey takes the pulse of CEOs on business conditions around the nation. For the 2010 survey, 651 CEOs from across the country evaluated the states on a broad range of issues, including proximity to markets and resources, regulation, tax policies, workforce quality, education resources, quality of living and infrastructure. The data for this year’s survey were collected in January.

Bill Dormandy, CEO of San Francisco-based medical device maker ITC, echoed the sentiments of numerous business leaders: "California has a good living environment but is unfavorable to business and the state taxes are not survivable. Nevada and Virginia are encouraging business to move to their states with lower tax rates and less regulatory demands."

"With state coffers dry around the U.S., government-business relations are increasingly antagonistic," said Marshall Cooper, CEO of Chief Executive Group, which publishes Chief Executive magazine. "In the past, CEOs viewed political risk as something to be dealt with overseas, but a flurry of regulatory and legislative initiatives at the state and federal levels make it now a home-front battle, as well."

"Chief Executive’s Best and Worst States survey reveals a continuing pattern where business is attracted to regions whose attitudes toward enterprise are friendly and are repulsed by areas whose attitudes are anti-growth," said J.P. Donlon, editor-in-chief of Chief Executive magazine. "In the wake of the economic crisis with states pushed to the edge with budgetary constraints, one might have supposed that the latter group would have rethought their often onerous, and ultimately job-killing, tax, regulatory and employment policies. Apart from New Jersey very recently, this has not been the case."