Groton — Southeastern Connecticut faces "more acute" economic challenges than the rest of the state and stands to fall further behind if the legislature doesn't rein in spending, a top state economist told a luncheon meeting of the Groton Rotary Club Tuesday.

Peter Gioia, a vice president at the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, told about 25 Rotary members at the Mystic Marriott's Octagon restaurant that Connecticut has gained about 27,000 jobs over the last year, yet the Norwich-New London area lost 1,100 positions in the same period. And while the state had an unemployment rate of 5.4 percent, southeastern Connecticut's rate was 5.8 percent.

While the nation has been growing at a moderate pace and Connecticut has been growing at a slow to moderate pace, Norwich-New London keeps falling further behind, Gioia said.

"This part of the state is sort of stalled,"he said. "We really have more to struggle with in terms of ... jump starting this area's growth."

Gioia added that because of its tenuous economic position, southeastern Connecticut stands to lose the most among all areas of the state when taxes rise precipitously. He estimated that legislators approved tax increases of about $1.5 billion last session, even after CBIA pressure led Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and the legislature to rescind some of the planned increases.

"What happens in Hartford has a more direct and immediate impact on (you) ... than what happens in D.C.," he said during his 20-minute presentation. "Are we setting ourselves up for another tax increase in two years?"