NEW YORK — New York City Council members grilled Amazon executives about the company’s plan to build a secondary headquarters in New York during a contentious hearing Wednesday that was interrupted by protesters.

The council members, who have no vote on the project and no apparent path to block it, demanded to know why the city and state were offering Amazon up to $2.8 billion in tax breaks and grants to build the new headquarters in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens.

“We have a crumbling subway system, record homelessness, public housing that is in crisis, overcrowded schools, sick people without health insurance and an escalating affordable crisis,” said city council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat. “Is anyone asking if we should be giving nearly $3 billion in public money to the world’s richest company, valued at $1 trillion?”

Brian Huseman, Amazon’s vice president for public policy, said the project would provide “over $186 billion in positive economic impact” over 25 years.

Johnson countered, “That analysis was done by someone who was hired by the state of New York, not by neutral third party academics or companies that can provide that economic analysis.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats, hailed the deal as a huge money maker for the state and the city when Amazon announced last month that it would split its second headquarters between New York City and Arlington, Va. Amazon is promising to bring 25,000 jobs to New York over 10 years and up to 40,000 in 15 years.

But lawmakers angered at being cut out of a deal that was negotiated without their input have criticized both the process and the Amazon subsidies.

Some researchers said the estimates from city officials overlook the cost of Amazon’s growth in the city.