Residents of NYC pays 11.1 billion dollars more in state (and 10.9 billion more in federal taxes) than they receive in benefits[1] (hell, we had to /beg/ for help from the feds after 9/11). That's why there's a NYC income tax on top of the other two. If they received their fair share, things like this /might/ be able to be fixed - along with the huge deficit that the MTA runs[2]. And the kicker of it all? Upstate New Yorkers tend to heavily dislike us city dwellers. Despite the fact that we fund just about everything the state does for them...

[1] http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/2009a/pr166-09.html

[2] http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/mta-faces-12-bi...