Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA

Residents want out of agency’s ‘hostage tax’
The Downtown Neighbors Alliance — which represents about 40,000 people living in Downtown and Brickell — is done playing nice with the Miami Downtown Development Authority and city officials that have mostly ignored them.
Earlier this month, DNA fired off a formal request to Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia to investigate the DDA for waste, bloat and the misuse of tens of millions of tax dollars skimmed from residents under what they’re calling a “hostage tax.”
Read related: Miami, two more Miami-Dade cities may have state DOGE look into books
“For 58 years, Downtowners have been forced to pay this additional tax without ever being given the opportunity to vote on its existence. No other Miamians live under such a system,” said DNA president James Torres, who lost a bid for city commission in 2023 and is gearing up to run again. He has been fighting the DDA tax since earlier this year, appearing before the city commission at almost every meeting begging for relief.
And he’s not wrong. Nobody else in the city has to cough up this special surtax.
The DDA’s extra levy has been hanging around since the late 1960s, when Downtown was emptying out and the city was desperate to “revitalize” it. But now that the area has exploded with towers and taxable property — $32.5 billion worth, DNA points out — the tax just looks like a cash cow for well-connected insiders. People like land use attorney (read: lobbyist) Melissa Tapanes Llahues, who was the interim chair of the DDA after Commissioner Manolo Reyes died and sits on the board. She is also hosted a fundraiser for newly elected Commissioner Ralph Rosado, who is the new chair of the DDA, this past Thursday.
“The racket stays tight while Downtowners remain hostage to double-taxation,” Torres said.
DNA laid it out in a blistering letter that paints the DDA as a bloated bureaucracy where six-figure salaries and PR fluff come before the people who are forced to foot the bill.

Excessive payroll: $3.5 million in salaries, with 14 staffers making more than $100K a year. The top three execs rake in $200K+ each. The median salary in Miami is about $60,000.

Marketing madness: Five in-house marketing gigs worth over half a million dollars combined, including a “Brand Integrity Expert” (¿qué cosa es eso?) pulling down $134,662. Add another $185K for outside spinmeisters at RBB Communications, and suddenly we’re at $736,000 a year just to tell the story.

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