'Jersey Shore' costs taxpayers $420,000

That’s a whole lot of tanning sessions.

MTV’s “Jersey Shore” is benefiting from a $420,000 state tax credit that has New Jersey taxpayers footing the bill – and some state officials shaking their fists in anger at the fist-pumping production.

“I can’t believe we are paying for fake tanning for ‘Snooki’ and ‘The Situation’, and I am not even sure $420,000 covers that,” Republican Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon told the Newark Star-Ledger.

Gov. Chris Christie has his own beef with the show, which he shares with critics who say it negatively portrays Italian-Americans and the Garden State through its cast of eight housemates who drink, brawl and party. Despite calls for Christie to block the tax credit, his spokesman said the governor can’t veto it as long as the production falls within the approved filming guidelines.

But P. Kenneth Hershey, the mayor of Seaside Heights, where the show is filmed, defended what the “Jersey Shore” has done for the local economy.