One of the main features of the Brazilian redemocratization was the decentralization of political and administrative power. This process constitutes a historical novelty by changing the Brazilian federalism by increasing the importance of state and municipal governments. This historical change sparked new bibliographical production relating to local power in Brazil. The vast majority of the studies, however, analyzed the municipalities. Therefore, it is reasonable to say that the comparative knowledge about state politics is still insufficient. To this existing gap it is possible to add another one: the effects of the institutions and the political game on the public Budget in Brazil are poorly understood. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to investigate the effects of the institutions and the political modus operandi on the allocation of public funds in state governments. The investigation looks at two groups of variables: the first focus on electoral features and the second on government aspects. A novelty of this research is to search for empirical and comparative knowledge about state-level politics and how it affects the distribution of public funds. Another highlight is the construction of a new database on this issue which will be made available to the academic community counting on a partnership with the Brazilian Political Science Association (ABCP) in order to achieve this.