Mayor Zohran Mamdani, left, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Getty Images (L) | CNBC(R)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hit back at Jeff Bezos on Wednesday Amazon The founder and executive chairman questioned whether raising taxes on billionaires would help working-class New Yorkers.
“You can double the taxes I pay, and it won’t help that teacher in Queens. I promise you that,” Bezos said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday.
Mamdani replied on x: “I know some teachers at Queens who hold a different opinion.”
Meanwhile, Bezos pushed for tax cuts for low-income Americans.
He called for eliminating federal income taxes on the bottom half, telling CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Squawk Box” that the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all tax revenues, while the bottom half pay 3%.
“I don’t think it should be 3%,” Bezos said. “I think it should be zero.”
In 2023, the adjusted gross income of the bottom half of taxpayers was approximately $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, which is funded by conservative interests, citing the latest IRS statistics. Households in the top 1% of earners earned at least $676,000 that year.
Starting by September 2025 Salaries for New York City teachers Those with a bachelor’s degree and no prior teaching experience were $68,902 and $77,455 for those with a master’s degree, according to the . NYC Public Schools.
Salaries are set to increase to $71,314 and $80,166 in September 2026, respectively.
The feud between Bezos and Mamdani puts a sharp edge on the mayor’s tax-the-rich message, which has been central to his effort to fund city services and address New York’s affordability crisis.
Mamdani and New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, are supporting a proposed pied-a-terror tax on luxury second homes worth $5 million or more, after the mayor abandoned a broader proposal to raise property taxes on many homeowners.
Mamdani has said the city’s first pied-a-terror tax will generate $500 million annually, but the New York City Comptroller has warned that revenues could be lower once property owners change their behavior, about $340 million to $380 million annually.
“I think the pied-à-terre tax is a good thing for New York,” Bezos said in the interview.