Why Apple’s $1 billion pledge to promote high-tech manufacturing isn’t as magnanimous as it seems

Apple may be the most valuable company in the U.S., but that hasn’t stopped it from collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in public support through state and local economic development tax breaks in recent years. According to data collected by Good Jobs First, the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks federal, state and local economic development subsidies, Apple received at least $513 million worth of U.S. tax breaks and other public incentives since 2009. The fund to invest in manufacturing in the United States was announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview earlier this month on CNBC’s “Mad Money.” The first investment from the fund, announced last week, will provide $200 million to Corning Incorporated, which makes the scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass used on touchscreen devices like the iPhone. Apple’s announcement comes as the White House and Congress are mulling a corporate tax amnesty that would give a one-time steep discount to U.S. companies to repatriate earnings they’re hoarding in low-tax jurisdictions abroad. State lawmakers chipped in by changing the way Apple’s state income tax liability was calculated that provides about $300 million in savings if the data center remains in Catawba County for 30 years.