Quantitative measurements help with understanding the mechanics involved and the role of philosophy in legislative actions. Identification of the key factors and the sequence of decisions is a basic approach to the mechanics of state funding of public higher education. Charts are used to graphically illustrate the relationships and individual state values. Factors involved in state appropriated support are: (1) state tax capacity (the potential taxes per capita measured by the representative tax system developed by the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations); (2) state tax effort (the percent of tax capacity actually collected); (3) the allocation/enrollment ratio (representing the state budget priority given to public higher education relative to the student enrollment load); and (4) tuition revenues that augment appropriations to equal total support per student. The data for the included charts are presented in table 1. The charts are scatter diagrams for the states and the District of Columbia. The five charts present the following: state appropriations per full-time equivalent student versus tax capacity; the state positions for the relationship of tax effort, tax capacity, and the resulting product of collected revenues; the state positions for the ratio of budget allocation rate to student enrollment load versus tax revenues collected; state positions for the appropriation/tuition relationship; and the final level of total support per student for public institutions relative to initial state tax capacity. (SM)