” in intergovernmental spending per American,”
That only references direct transfers from the feds to the state government. A paltry 15% of Federal expenditures fall into that category.
The author was deliberately trying to deceive when that chart was put up.
You might want to check out this article on California.
Since that seems to be your focus I did a bit of research.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-california-federal-government-money-20170205-story.html
To me the whole argument is irrelevant. The Government should not be taking money from the States & then doling it back. The consensus is that Ca get $0.99 back for every $1 it sends in taxes to the Feds. So why do we need to waste $ on personnel and the inefficiency of the double transfer? The whole system stinks and it will not improve while people are arguing to maintain SALT deductions instead of lowering what goes to the Feds in the first place.