Mamdani fires back at Bezos over Queens teacher tax remark

Mayor Zohran Mamdani (L) and Jeff Bezos

Getty Images (L) | CNBC (R)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani fired back on Wednesday at Jeff Bezos after the Amazon founder and executive chairman questioned whether raising taxes on billionaires would do anything to help working-class New Yorkers.

"You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you," Bezos said in an interview on CNBC earlier Wednesday.

Mamdani responded on X: "I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ."

Bezos, meanwhile, pushed for tax cuts for low-income Americans.

He called for eliminating federal income taxes on the bottom half of earners, telling CNBC's Andrew Sorkin on "Squawk Box," that the top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all tax revenue, 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 bottom half of taxpayers had an adjusted gross income of nearly $54,000 in 2023, according to the Tax Foundation, which is funded by conservative interests, citing the most recent IRS statistics. Households earning in the top 1% brought home at least $676,000 of income that year.

As of September 2025, starting salaries for New York City teachers were $68,902 for those with a bachelor's degree and no prior teaching experience, and $77,455 for those with a master's degree, according to NYC Public Schools. 

Those salaries are set to rise in September 2026 to $71,314 and $80,166 respectively.

The feud between Bezos and Mamdani puts a sharper edge on the mayor's tax-the-rich message, which has been central to his push to fund city services and address New York's affordability crisis.

Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, are backing a proposed pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes worth $5 million or more, after the mayor dropped a broader proposal to raise property taxes on many homeowners.

Mamdani has said the city's first-ever pied-à-terre tax would generate $500 million annually, but New York City's comptroller has warned the revenue could come in lower, around $340 million to $380 million annually, once property owners change their behavior.

"I think that the pied-à-terre tax is a fine thing for New York to do," Bezos said in the interview.