In AU, the vast majority of discretionary state funding comes from the distribution of Federal sales taxes to the states (and the there's very little we put at the actual local level - parking enforcement, animal control, garbage collection and some planning approval basically).
The other main state income source is company tax, but in practice the federal govt has a lot of influence on how much they can charge there (especially where a given state is run by the same party as the current federal govts)
The state emergency services are very dependent on federal grants and funding as well as being funded by their state masters. Things like bushfires often cross states and require major federal responses, so there's (supposed to be) a lot of federal contribution.
I'm trying to be somewhat neutral here and describe the existing funding structures rather than comment on the policy aspects to not run afoul of the rules :)
And it's kiiiinda markety
