What did people/states do BEFORE the feds started nursing them?
Something about putting away for a rainy day.
There was a time when the feds were not extracting the amount of taxes that they are now. That leaves less available for the States. If the feds would crawl back into the hole they crawled out of, left the states to manage themselves without unfunded mandates and economy crushing regulations they very well COULD afford to handle it themselves.