ALBANY – In its first-ever report card on the Legislature, the Business Council of New York State is giving most state lawmakers a grade of “C.”

After analyzing the legislators’ actions on issues it deemed important for the state’s economy, the Business Council handed out 122 “Cs,” 63 “Bs,” 12 “Ds,” and just three “As.”

The Republican majority leader of the Senate, Joseph Bruno of Rensselaer County, was one of the few “As,” while the Democratic speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan, was one of the many “Cs.”

Officials behind the report said they hoped the mediocre grades would prod lawmakers to become more business friendly in the future.

Legislators gained points if they voted to control spending on Medicaid, lower workers’ compensation premiums, extend tax incentives for economic development, and limit lawsuits against building contractors, and lost points if they voted to mandate broader mental health coverage by employers or to penalize “outsourcing” of jobs to other countries.

“This whole system is designed to have a change in behavior with our friends down the street,” the president of the Business Council, Daniel Walsh, said in a teleconference from the group’s Albany headquarters.

“A ‘C’ is nothing to be proud of,” said the council’s top lobbyist, Ed Reinfurt. “It’s not a pat on the back – more likely, if you got that at home, a kick in the butt. We’ve got to have better than ‘C’s if we want job growth.”

A spokeswoman for the Assembly Democrats, Eileen Larrabee, rejected the report’s findings, saying the Business Council had overlooked the Assembly’s proposals to provide loans for businesses, improve the reliability of the electrical grid, and encourage cooperation between universities and high technology companies.

“The Assembly majority is proud of our efforts…to improve the economic climate in the state,” Ms. Larrabee said.

One of the lawmakers who received a “D,” Senator Eric Schneiderman of Manhattan, said the report card penalized him and other lawmakers who tried to change policies that he considers an “utter failure.”

“I have very passionate feelings about the need for intelligent economic development programs,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “I don’t think the policies the Business Council is promoting accurately reflect an agenda for long-term economic growth.”

But the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, Mark Alesse, said he though the Business Council had graded lawmakers “on the curve.” He cited a report this summer from New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, which found that New York’s state government was less efficient than any other state’s.

“How does the most dysfunctional Legislature in the nation even get a ‘C’?” Mr. Alesse said.

“I’ve never seen a situation in Albany where the business community has been so unable to drive an agenda,” he said. “We have allowed ourselves to be marginalized.”

On the NFIB scorecard, the average score in the Assembly was 40% and in the Senate 61%.

A fiscal analyst with the Manhattan Institute, E.J. McMahon, welcomed the Business Council’s effort. “Any system to hold these guys accountable is a positive development,” Mr. McMahon said.

Mr. Schneiderman said it looked to him as if the Business Council had slanted the report card to give Mr. Bruno a better grade, noting that a $2 increase in the minimum wage hike – which businesses opposed and the Senate leader favored – was not included in the grade. Governor Pataki vetoed the wage hike, and lawmakers are considering an override later this year.

The report card was also based strictly on activity in 2004, and therefore left out the Senate Republicans’ controversial decision last year to support a budget that raised income and sales taxes and to override all of Mr. Pataki’s budget vetoe.