Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Texas is a low-tax state, historically and politically. But occasionally political leaders emerge who try to reconcile the low taxes with the demands for more public works and services, as well as the needs of Texans.

Such a reconciliation can be particularly difficult for Republicans, for whom low taxes isn't just a guiding principle but, for the party's most conservative wing, the only principle.

But some Republicans see the need to get things done, for their constituents and for their state, and at least two have stood out over the past week or so in the Texas Legislature: Sen. Kevin Eltife of Tyler and Sen. John Carona of Dallas.

Eltife is pushing legislation to accept $555 million from the federal government for the state's unemployment insurance fund, which is almost empty thanks to the surge in job layoffs. Without the federal money, employers face a stiff tax increase.

But Gov. Rick Perry, the Texas Association of Business and the National Federation of Independent Business oppose accepting the stimulus money on grounds that it would force the state to make its unemployment insurance program somewhat more inclusive.

Perry, turning ever harder to the right politically as he prepares for a GOP primary fight for renomination next year, has taken to hollering state's rights and complaining that the federal government is trying to dictate policy to the state. Well, for $555 million it's not surprising the feds might expect the state to spread the wealth around a bit more.

Eltife is a lot more practical. He says the state needs the money, that the federal money is the equivalent of eight years' cost for the increased eligibility and that the state can always revisit the expanded eligibility later.

"It's really easy to do a 20-second sound bite to make the public believe that it's best not to take the money," Eltife said. "It's a lot harder to show in details the numbers and why it makes sense to take the money."

Carona is taking on a different problem, rapidly degenerating state finances that pay for designing, building and maintaining thousands of miles of state highways. The Legislature has refused, since 1991, to raise the gasoline tax, in part because Perry indicated he would veto such a bill. And attempts to broaden the use of toll roads have met public resistance.

But while Perry defends low gasoline taxes, leaders in several of the state's urban areas, including Dallas and Austin, want a chance to ask their voters if they are willing to pay a local gasoline tax or higher motor vehicle fees to fund new highway construction.

In Senate debate last week, Carona made an important point against criticism of his bill:

"People have said, 'Why not do this in better economic times?' And you know what my argument would be to that? We had better economic times just a few short years ago, and you know what? There wasn't a legislator one who stepped forward in this chamber or the other one to do the responsible thing."

Carona has stepped forward, and so has Eltife. They may not be able to overcome the governor's opposition, but at least they are trying to move the state forward, too.

As Carona told the Senate last week, "I do not want to be a talk-radio Republican. I want to be a problem-solving Republican."