Jeff Bezos backs Mamdani’s new housing tax: ‘makes sense’
Jeff Bezos endorsed New York City’s proposed pied-à-terre tax on second homes worth over $5 million during an exclusive interview with CNBC on Wednesday, while at the same time defending a fellow billionaire.
“I think that the pied-à-terre tax is a fine thing for New York to do. It’s a policy debate. Policy debates don’t have to be finger pointing,” he said, defending Ken Griffin in his escalating battle with Mayor Zohran Mamdani over the tax.
The hedge fund founder has become the most outspoken opponent of the proposed pied-à-terre tax after Mamdani posted a social media video on Tax Day filmed from outside Griffin’s $238 million penthouse at 220 Central Park South.
“When I ran for mayor, I committed to taxing the wealthy. Today, we’re taxing the rich,” Mamdani said in the April 15 video. But Griffin was outraged by his house being chosen as background for the video, claiming doing so put him “in harm’s way.”
Bezos described as “not so good” the idea to “go stand in front of Ken Griffin’s house and act like he’s some kind of villain,” which he said he is not.
“He’s not hurting New York, in fact quite the opposite,” he said.
“A pied-à-terre tax, you know…taxes on out-of-towners are very popular taxes, and that is why there are hotel taxes. You know, hotels always have very high tax rates, because why not tax the tourists? And there are limits, if you raise the hotel taxes too much, tourists stop coming. You have to be judicious,” Bezos told CNBC.
As well as speaking in favor of the new tax proposal, he said he supports bringing down taxes for the working class to zero. He said that he is willing to bring up this issue with President Donald Trump but did not say how the idea could actually work on a practical level.
What Is a Pied-à-Terre Tax?
After weeks of pressure from the New York City mayor to increase income taxes on the state’s ultrarich, Governor Kathy Hochul, who has been strongly against the idea, agreed to something of a compromise.
In April, she announced she would attach a pied-à-terre tax to the state budget. This is an additional tax on New York City homeowners with second homes worth $5 million or more which the city and state governments said is expected to bring $500 million in annual revenues from roughly 13,000 homes.
The New York City comptroller Mark Levine released slightly different estimates, calculating that with a number of substantial variables in the design, implementation, and enforcement of the program, the revenues would likely be between $340 million and $380 million per year.
No further details on how the proposed pied-à-terre tax would work are yet available, as the state budget has not yet been signed off.
What Impact Would It Have on New York City?
The proposed pied-à-terre tax has sparked a fierce debate over what impact it would have on New York City.
Emily Eisner, acting executive director and chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, previously told Newsweek that the proposal is “a step in the right direction,” but not enough to fix all of New York City’s problems—and its massive budget gap.
“We’re looking at a moment in time where Wall Street and oil companies are making record profits while many people are facing a difficult job market, really high inflation over the last five years, and housing costs that are exorbitant,” she said.
“I think trying to tax those extremely high-earning, high-wealth individuals is appropriate and worth doing. But it will raise roughly $500 million for the city at most, and that’s about a tenth of the budget gap we are seeing.”
On the other hand, there are people like Griffin who believe that the tax would run wealthy New Yorkers and their businesses outside of the city—something that Florida real estate agents and developers are strongly hoping for.
But not all billionaires, like Bezos has proven, are against the higher tax on luxury second homes in the city. Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock managing director, is now chair of Patriotic Millionaires, a group pushing back on billionaires’ backlash to Mamdani’s tax proposals.
“It’s not that I want to pay more taxes, it’s that I want to live in a city where the doorman that I depend on, where the waiters who serve the food in the restaurant, where the guys who drive the cars can afford to live here too, because I depend on those people,” he previously told Newsweek.
“I don’t particularly want to take more taxes. But I want to live in a city where all the people that I need to make it the city where I want to live can afford to live and raise their families. That’s what I want.”
What Else Did Bezos Say About Taxes?
While finding some common ground with Mamdani over the proposed pied-à-terre tax, Bezos shut down the mayor’s idea of increasing income taxes on the ultra wealthy.
“You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not gonna help that teacher in Queens. I promise you,” he told CNBC on Wednesday.
Mamdani responded with a post on X, saying: “I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.”
Bezos spoke instead about completely eliminating federal income taxes for the working class—or the bottom half of earners—instead of simply reducing them.
“If people are starting out and they are struggling, stop taxing them. We don’t need them. We live in the greatest country in the world […] and we should have so much optimism about the future.”
Asked if he would bring the issue to Trump personally, Bezos said he would certainly advocate for it, saying he has worked with U.S. presidents in the past and he hopes to continue working close to future ones.
