That money comes with strings attached and that's the whole point. You could always stop paying and just let all that stuff that gets done with state money get done by the towns instead but you'd lose the ability to dictate terms and we all know that's a non-starter.
Micromanaging a bunch of people who don't care about you or your values isn't cheap. You can either pay in dollars or in blood. The wealthy suburbanites and urbanites who want to see the brown folk in Fall River or the hicks west of Worcester march to the official state tune don't really have the stomach for an endless supply of "the tragic turn of events all began when State Trooper McFakeTimeCard pulled over Mr. Lopez, 36 of Springfield for an expired inspection sticker..." type news stories so it's no surprise that the "US in Iraq" approach gets chosen over the "Russians in Syria" approach.
<shrug>