(Entire state in one Metro Area). The idea that NYC benefits from being on a different economic cycle than Upstate NY has been discredited. Yes, Downstate money has flowed Upstate in the past few years, as we have boomed and they have stagnated. But in the early 1990s, the opposite was NOT true. It seems that most of New York State's money is collected in NYC, but the rest of the state gets a "fair share" of it. When NYC is down, there is no one else to pick up the slack.
Besides, when our economy is up we get less state and federal funding because we don't need it. But when it is down, we get less because we don't deserve it.