— Al Gore labeled his environmental horror flick "An Inconvenient Truth," but fiscally aware Mainers think that title fits another kind of climate-related disaster story.

That is, if Maine's business climate were the Antarctic ice shelf, it would be melting down to a single cube off the coast of Jamaica about now.

Yes, I know that there are people out there who just don't want to hear that. Every time I write about how national groups or publications look at Maine's relative standing when it comes to luring companies waving wads of greenbacks, I get e-mails from people telling me to shut my big yap because I'm spreading bad news that only hurts the state's image.

I look at such views the same way I think of toddlers who play hide-and-seek by putting their hands over their own eyes in the fond belief that if they can't see you, you can't see them.

It's not as if entrepreneurs in other states didn't have plenty of other places to go to get analyses of Maine's not-so-open door for commercial development or expansion.

So open up your Outlooks and enable your Entourages, 'cause here I go again.

Actually, it's not me. That's the point. Belaboring the messenger does absolutely nothing to counteract the message, and this one comes from a prestigious source: Forbes magazine.

On Wednesday, Forbes released its 2007 rankings for "The Best States for Business."

Sure, you can say Forbes is viewing each state's business climate with a jaundiced eye, only looking for those whose policies would be most attractive to its own readership.

But that's precisely the point. If a state's attractiveness to business is down-rated by the business community, who exactly is it who has credibility in counteracting that view?

And the news from Forbes isn't good. To put it mildly.

Compiling data from Moody's Economy.com, Polina Corporate Real Estate, the Pacific Research Institute, the Tax Foundation, the Corporation for Enterprise Development and Sperling's Best Places, the magazine's analysis put Maine two places from dead last in its overall ranking.

Which is to say, 48th out of 50.

That's even worse than it seems, because it's a two-place drop from 2006's 46th position.

That's not a good trend.

Needless to say, nobody in state government is going to be taking out ads in The Wall Street Journal saying, "Invest in Maine: At Least We're Not Louisiana or West Virginia!"

Trouble is, I'm very far from confident they are going to do anything useful about it, either, considering how badly lawmakers botched their tax "reform" effort -- and I mean in conception as well as execution.

In fact, "execution" is exactly what that misbegotten mishmash of ill-thought-out ideas richly deserved. It offered the ephemeral promise of tiny tax cuts in exchange for all-too-real tax hikes (while state spending rose by $400 million).

Something to write home about, for sure.

The reason for my pessimism is contained in the breakdown of the overall rating, which is a weighted result of rankings in six different categories: business costs, labor, regulatory environment, economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

Starting with the highest of those, our beautiful state is ranked 16th in the nation in quality of life, based on the overall ratings of our schools, health care, crime, cost of living and poverty rates.

But it goes downhill pretty fast. Every other category is below average, starting with a rank of 27th on labor (educational attainment, net migration and projected population growth).

We're 30th in economic climate (current job, income and gross state product growth, unemployment and the presence of large employers).

We fall to 42nd in growth prospects (projected job, income and GSP growth, business openings and closings, and venture capital investment).

Then we hit 43rd on business costs (labor, energy and -- you guessed it -- taxes).

And finally, we bottom out at 46th in the nation on regulatory environment (regulatory and tort climate, incentives, transportation and bond ratings).

True, none of those hit the 48th ranking, but most other states have at least a few more individually higher rankings to drive up their overall rating.

Only Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Michigan, Louisiana and West Virginia joined Maine in having only one category ranked in the top half nationwide -- and only Alaska had none.

The other New England states ranked thusly: New Hampshire 14th; Connecticut 31st; Vermont 32nd; Massachusetts 36th; Rhode Island 45th.

The good news? There's lots of room for improvement, and things can't get much worse.

Oh, that's right. That's the bad news, too.

And our lawmakers, who think real tax cuts, spending control and regulatory relief are anathema, are bereft of any clue of how to fix it.

M.D. Harmon is an editorial page writer and editor. He can be contacted at 791-6482 or at: mharmon@pressherald.com