New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani isn't letting Jeff Bezos have the last word. After the Amazon.com Inc. (Amazon (AMZN)) founder said in a CNBC interview that even doubling his taxes wouldn't help a teacher in Queens, Mamdani fired back on X: "I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ."
The exchange is the latest flashpoint in a growing debate over wealth, taxes, and how cities fund basic services. Bezos, who said he pays "billions of dollars in taxes," argued that politicians who blame billionaires are using an "age-old technique" of picking a villain rather than fixing root causes. "You could double the taxes I pay, and it's not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you," he said.
Bezos instead pointed to government spending as the real problem. He noted that New York spends roughly $44,000 per student, far more than cities like Houston or Chicago. "How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes?" he said, referring to a hypothetical nurse making $75,000 a year who pays over $12,000 in taxes.
The Amazon founder also criticized a Mamdani video filmed outside the home of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, which promoted a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes. Bezos said the tax itself could be "a fine thing" but argued Griffin "isn't a villain" and shouldn't have been singled out.
Interestingly, the Bezos family pledged up to $150 million earlier this month to expand early childhood education and universal childcare in New York City — a cornerstone of Mamdani's administration, which has pushed for a free, year-round "2-K" program for children starting at age 2. So while the two may disagree on tax policy, they're both investing in the same cause.
The broader billionaire tax debate isn't going away. Bezos said he's willing to debate whether wealthy Americans should pay more, but he insists that vilifying billionaires is a distraction from the real issue: spending. Mamdani, meanwhile, seems happy to keep the spotlight on the teachers in Queens.
