I believe a big chunk of the NY city budget is property taxes on the big boi buildings all over, as well as private houses. This is why NY is squeezing so hard on things like parking tickets and the MTA, because they are having budgeting issues :( Remember that time where they were overly aggressive ticketing people for seatbelt usage (I loved that because it made people actually buckle up) and it was 100% because they needed revenue.