NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos expressed support for New York’s plan to impose a new tax on luxury second homes in the city, noting that higher levies on out-of-towners is a reasonable way to raise revenue.
“I think that the pied-à-terre tax is a fine thing for New York to do,” Bezos said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday.
Bezos, who resides in Florida but owns property in New York City, would likely be one of the homeowners responsible for paying the new tax. He had purchased three condos in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood with a total value of about $80 million in 2019.
The new surcharge, proposed by Governor Kathy Hochul, will be levied on single family homes and apartments with market values of roughly $5 million or more. The details of the tax are still being negotiated, and the state’s budget has not yet been finalized. It is intended to raise $500 million to help fill a multi-billion dollar deficit in New York City’s budget.
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But the proposal generated controversy after Mayor Zohran Mamdani released a video backing the tax in which he specifically named Citadel Chief Executive Officer Ken Griffin’s purchase of a $238 million apartment as an example of someone who would pay the levy. Griffin later called Mamdani’s remarks “creepy and weird.”
In Wednesday’s CNBC interview, Bezos commented on the mayor’s video, criticizing Mamdani for singling out the billionaire financier.
“Ken Griffin isn’t a villain. He hasn’t hurt anybody. He’s not hurting New York. In fact, quite the opposite,” Bezos said, noting it is “perfectly fine” to have a policy debate about the merits of the levy. “That piece of it isn’t right, and there was no reason to do that,” he said.
A spokesperson for Mamdani did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Bezos’ remarks.
Bezos did note that if he paid more in taxes, it wouldn’t help working citizens like a teacher in Queens. Mamdani responded to those comments in a post on social media.
“I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ,” Mamdani quipped in a post on X.
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