Back in November, we noted that New Jersey was foolishly set to give the food company Goya $80 million to create just nine (nine!) jobs. But according to the New York Times, this is just par for the course for New Jersey Gov/ Chris Christie (R), who has already approved a record number of corporate tax subsidies:

Since taking office in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie has approved a record $1.57 billion in state tax breaks for dozens of New Jersey’s largest companies after they pledged to add jobs…The critics pointed out that even when the promised jobs have not materialized, the Christie administration has merely reduced, not withdrawn, the subsidies. And they say that the administration is mortgaging the state’s future by forgiving so much tax revenue for the next 10 to 15 years.

One program Christie has run doled out $900 million in tax credits. The companies receiving that largesse “have promised to add 2,364 jobs, or $387,537 in tax credits per job, over the next decade.” In one instance, Campbell Soup was given $42 million to create jobs in Camden. When the company proceeded to cut 100 jobs, Christie merely slapped it on the wrist, reducing its tax credit to $34 million, with the stipulation that the company add five jobs per year over a decade after it regains its previous employment total. For those keeping score, that’s $34 million for 50 jobs.

As the Economic Policy Institute and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found, “a growing body of research suggests that state and local tax cuts and incentives cannot create jobs in a cost-effective manner.” Citizens for Tax Justice calls corporate tax incentives and business exemptions “deeply flawed as policy.”

Just a few months ago, Illinois gave retail giant Sears $275 million to keep its corporate headquarters in the state, after Sears threatened to move elsewhere (including, potentially, Ohio). To show its appreciation for receiving millions in taxpayer funds, as Greg Leroy pointed out at the Clawback blog, Sears announced last week that it will layoff 100 workers at those headquarters:

Despite a huge subsidy package enacted by the state of Illinois in December, Sears Holdings Corp. has already announced layoffs at its headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates. Last week, the retailer announced that 100 HQ staff will be laid off…That December deal, valued at up to $275 million, came after Sears threatened to relocate in headquarters to another state. Its predecessor company, Sears, Roebuck & Co., played the same “job blackmail” game in 1989. The $168 million, 23-year deal it won then was soon to expire when Sears Holdings announced it might again be footloose.

The deal that Illinois signed with Sears actually gives the company the option to lay off another 1,750 workers in the state without penalty, meaning that Illinois paid millions of dollars to potentially see close to 2,000 jobs disappear. “The only surprise is that people are surprised by this,” said state Rep. Jack Franks (D). “The governor knew that this was going to happen, and he pretended he didn’t.”

Shortly after inking its deal with Illinois, Sears also announced plans to close 120 stores nationwide. As Prof. Kenneth Thomas noted, “the jobs crisis apparently has made some states afraid to assert themselves in investment incentive negotiations.”

And Sears is far from the only company to engage in such practices. As ThinkProgress reported in January, mega-manufacturer Boeing closed a plant in Wichita, Kansas after receiving a slew of tax breaks and significant help from Kansas lawmakers which enabled it to land a $35 billion Defense Department contract. “This company has benefited from property tax incentives, sales tax exemptions, infrastructure investments and other tax breaks at every level of government. These incentives were provided in an effort to retain and create thousands of Kansas jobs,” said Wichita Rep. Jim Ward (D), responding to Boeing’s move. “We will be less trusting in the future of corporate promises.” Perhaps Illinois should also be more hesitant to throw money at companies in the hopes of preserving jobs.

Back in 2008, Google seemed to have set the standard for tech corporation tax dodging, using complex accounting and subsidiaries in Ireland and Bermuda to drives its tax rate all the way down to 2.4 percent. But if all goes according to plan, Facebook will be able to use its initial public offering — via the stock options it gives its employees — to not only avoid paying corporate income tax for years, but to receive a $500 million refund from the federal government, as Citizens for Tax Justice explained:

Tax law says that if a corporation issues options for employees to buy the company’s stock in the future for its price when the option issued, then if the stock has gone up in value when employees exercise the options, the company gets to deduct the difference between what the employee bought it for and its market price.

When, as Facebook expects, the 187 million stock options are cashed in this year, Facebook will get $7.5 billion in tax deductions (which will reduce the company’s federal and state taxes by $3 billion). According to Facebook, these tax deductions should exceed the company’s U.S. taxable 2012 income and result in a net operating loss (NOL) that can then be carried back to the preceding two years to offset its past taxes, resulting in a refund of up to $500 million.

Facebook’s filing papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission confirm as much:

Option exercise activity would generate a corporate income tax deduction [that] exceeds our other U.S. taxable income [and] will result in a net operating loss (NOL) that can be carried back to the preceding two years to offset our taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes, as well as in some states, which would allow us to receive a refund of some of the corporate income taxes we paid in those years. Based on the assumptions above, we anticipate that this refund could be up to $500 million.

“Due to the stock option loophole, Facebook may not pay any corporate income taxes on its profits for a generation,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI). “It isn’t right, and we can’t afford it.” The Treasury Department estimates that it loses about $2 billion per year due to companies using this stock option loophole to avoid taxes.

Under an obscure Florida law, stadiums that take taxpayer subsidies must serve as homeless shelters on the nights when they are not hosting events. With more than 50,000 residents living on the streets, Florida has the nation’s third-largest homeless population, giving the 18 stadiums that take taxpayer subsidies the opportunity to provide a valuable, and necessary, public good.

But according to two Florida Republicans, the stadiums aren’t holding up their end of the deal. Despite taking more than $271 million in subsidies since Miami’s Dolphins Stadium opened in 1994, the facilities aren’t serving the homeless on off nights, and legislation filed by Sen. Mike Bennett (R) and Rep. Frank Artiles (R) would force the stadiums to refund the tax money if they haven’t complied with the law, the Miami Herald reports:

Sen. Mike Bennett (R-Bradenton) and Rep. Frank Artiles (R-Miami) have filed bills that would require stadiums to return money to the state if they have not been complying with the homeless shelter law.

“These organizations have failed to follow the law for over 20 years,” said Artiles, in a statement .”This is the simply the State of Florida holding them accountable.”

Of the $271 million taken since 1994, Miami’s Dolphins Stadium ($37 million) and the city of Jacksonville ($35.1 million) have received the most money. The state’s three NFL venues have taken more than $102.1 million from the state over that time, while its two NBA arenas have taken roughly $35.3 million since 1998. Florida’s 10 spring training facilities, used by Major League Baseball teams for less than two months a year, have taken a total of $37.5 million since 2001, and other stadiums have also taken subsidies, as shown in this chart from the Miami Herald:

While the stadiums take massive subsides, homelessness, particularly among children, has continually increased in Florida since the recession began, and it remains a problem even as the economy inches toward recovery. Bennett and Artiles’ bills, should they become law, would change that, forcing the stadiums to do their part in helping the state’s neediest residents.

Politico’s Anna Palmer reports that K Street lobbyists are gearing up for a last-ditch effort to save a slew of “tax perks, credits and other goodies worth billions to industry.”

These special tax favors, encapsulated in a “tax extenders” package, have had little trouble passing in recent history. But this year “the price tag — about $30 billion over 10 years — makes them unpalatable when slashing spending is the agenda.” That’s why K Street’s lobbyists have mobilized themselves to defend these special tax breaks for industries such as real estate, energy, and automobiles. One lobbyist even likened passing the package of tax extenders to Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star:

“I’m working on several tax extenders, and we’re working our butts off,” said Holland & Knight’s Rich Gold, who gave the package a 1-in-10 chance of passing this year. “I’ve also been telling my clients it’s a little bit of Luke Skywalker threading the needle to get to the Death Star.”

While there may be merit to some of the tax policy contained within the tax extenders package (particularly the renewable energy production tax credit), most of these tailored tax credits and tax breaks are a result of lobbying by a handful of industries. They are a prime example of how special interests utilize K Street’s lobbyists to craft public policy for their own benefit.