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.”

“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. He has been fighting the DDA tax for years, appearing before the city commission at almost every meeting begging for relief. Last year, he led the effort to reduce the DDA’s budget “waste” by $1.2 million.

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.
Luxury digs: More than $700,000 a year for fancy office space high above Downtown — literally looking down on the residents paying for it. Must be nice to sip cafecitos with a million-dollar view while dismissing complaints as background noise.
Corporate handouts: This year alone, DDA shelled out $450K to FC Barcelona, $175K to the College Football Playoff, $100K to the UFC, and $50K to a high-end Brickell medical business. Maybe residents should start a soccer team if they want a slice of their own tax dollars back.

Meanwhile, only a tiny percentage of the funding goes to helping the homeless, which is the DDA’s loudest argument.

Both the DNA and the Brickell Homeowners Association — which calls the DDA the “Doesn’t Do Anything” for Brickell — have called for relief from the tax, or restraint with their dollars. But when residents complain, the DDA waves them off as “half a dozen disgruntled neighbors.” So does Commissioner Damian Pardo, who represents the downtown as the district 2 elected, and has taken to calling his critics “the crazies.”

Half a dozen? It’s probably more in the thousands.

That kind of tone-deaf arrogance is what pushed DNA and the Brickell Homeowners Association to turn up the heat. Together, they’ve been demanding that the DDA either cut the fat or cut the tax.

But instead of tightening its belt, the agency seems to have doubled down on its champagne tastes. Which is why Torres and DNA are now appealing to Ingoglia’s oversight powers to take a closer look at whether the DDA’s budget passes the smell test. Will they? Well, Helen Aguirre Ferre, who used to be the communications director for governor Ron DeSantis and then the executive director of the Republican Party of Florida, retweeted the post by Torres announcing their state ask.

“Downtowners already contribute more than $32.5 billion in taxable property value to the City of Miami — more than our fair share,” Torres said. “We should not be double-taxed, dismissed, and deceived by a public agency that exists solely because of our contributions.”

Ladra has written about this “hostage tax” before. But now it feels like a showdown: Downtown residents versus an entrenched bureaucracy that’s gotten a little too comfortable with other people’s money.

This time, vecinos, the fight may be headed to Tallahassee.

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James Torres, Miami DDA, Ralph Rosado

Miami Downtowners seek state DOGE assistance on tax relief from DDA added by Ladra on September 20, 2025
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