Everyone goes to Europe and asks why their cities are so much nicer than ours. A huge reason for that is the US starves our cities. Europe does not. We saw this again in PA. Southeast PA pays 40% of the state tax revenue, but the legislature won't let them keep any to build transit.
And it doesn't have to be zero-sum! There's more than enough to go around, based on the macroeconomics. But rural conservatives keep voting in favor if everyone getting exploited. Because urban populations suffer a bit more than they do. And for too many of them, they consider that a win.