No. Some state take in billions more in federal tax dollars then they send in with states like Alabama and Kentucky often at the top of the list. Without California and New York floating most red states they'd be sunk.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-s...

This is why when a red state chooses to lower taxes or otherwise increase their reliance on federal help I laugh at the hypocrisy of the bootstraps party and wonder why my federal taxes, in a blue state without federal support, should go to such irresponsible people.

The suggestion is that these cities are potentially paying more money to the federal government than they get back in federal aid. The population is irrelevant.

Urban areas have higher per capita income, and taxes are progressive, so out of proportion to the number of citizens is a possible meaning.