Chief Executive Magazine released its “2013 Best and Worst States for Business” Monday and not surprisingly, Republican governors lead the top 12.

It’s the ninth year for the survey of CEO opinion on what states are friendliest to businesses, and this year, “736 CEOs—the highest response on record—rendered their verdict,” the report said.

The top 12 states to do business in are Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, Arizona, Virginia, South Carolina, Nevada, Georgia, Louisiana and Utah.

According to the new report:

Business leaders were asked to grade states with which they are familiar on a variety of competitive metrics that CEOs themselves regard as critical. These include: 1) taxation and regulation; 2) quality of workforce; and 3) living environment. The tax and regulatory grade includes a measure of how CEOs grade a state’s attitude toward business, a key indicator.

In the minds of most leaders, a state’s friendliness is closely aligned with its tax and regulatory regime. Similarly, workforce quality also measures the perceived cooperativeness of workers with management, as well as the people’s general work ethic and education attainment. The living environment metric measures the perceived quality of education and public health facilities, as well as the affordability and quality of real estate, the transportation system and related environmental factors.

Of note, Texas held it’s number one position for nine consecutive years, and California has held it’s dead last 50^th place finish for the same.

Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana maintained the same second to fifth place ranking from 2012.

The 10 worst states to do business in will come as no surprise, either.

They are Oregon, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Michigan, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York and California.

Govs. Chris Christie of N.J., Rick Snyder of Michigan and Tom Corbett of Penn. are the only three Republicans to lead the worst states for businesses.

Read more from Chief Executive Magazine.

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Janeen Capizola

"And though she be but little, she is fierce." And fun! This conservative-minded political junkie, mom of three, dancer and one-time NFL cheerleader holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science. [email protected]. Twitter: @JaneenBPR

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