The latest General Assembly session was 60 days longer than usual because of this disconnected logic. As soon as it concluded, the anti-tax ideologues began attacking those legislators who were able to connect the dots, understand income and spending, and truly balance a budget. If you want to cut taxes, be honest enough to tell us what services you're going to cut to do it. It's time to stop talking about taxes as if they don't pay for anything. It would be sad to think that voters could be fooled by this.

Virginia has a time-honored tradition of good fiscal stewardship. Sure, low taxes are important, but you have to invest in the needs of the future. When you do, you pay for it as you go, holding a moderate course to ensure stability for our families. The 17 House Republicans who were able to connect the dots between taxes and spending, who saw the needs of Virginia's future and acted to protect the next generation, return to the responsibility of that tradition.

Those opposed to investing in Virginia will try to blind us with "tax talk," telling of a massive growth in government. Yet their statistics leave out the fact that state tax revenue has only increased 0.01 percent in the past four years. The "growth" they speak of is non-state money - tuition and federal homeland security funds. Armed with that information, it becomes harder for the tax talkers to pull the wool over our eyes.

When legislators arrived in Richmond this January, they were confronted with myriad problems in higher education. Tuition was skyrocketing, classes were being cut, and important programs had been gutted. Classrooms at Virginia Tech were so crowded the fire marshal had to intervene. The nursing program at Christopher Newport University was cut. Students at the College of William and Mary voted to raise their own fees to pay professor salaries. We had reached the shamefully historic low of 40th in the nation for state support of higher education - below Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia.

Some lawmakers decided to stay in the fantasy world where taxes don't pay for services and ignore any reasonable way to solve the problems. Responsible, pro-education leaders like Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, Preston Bryant, R-Lynchburg, and Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, saw through the smoke and decided that the next generation was more important than the next election. Each put his money where his mouth was, deciding that overcrowded classrooms, canceled programs and skyrocketing tuition were scarier than the political threats against them. They invested $275 million in higher education, a proven engine of our economy and the key to Virginia's future. That's $815 for every child going to a public college in Virginia. These leaders are keeping the doors of education open for hard-working middle-class families.

For teaching us all a lesson in leadership, delegates like Jones, Bryant and Oder came under attack by the anti-taxes crowd. They were criticized because they saw past the misdirection and understood that taxes provide services we all need. Attacking the delegates who stood in support of the next generation of Virginia is tantamount to attacking Virginia's students and families.

Students are returning to class now, but as the class of 2004 graduated this spring, a lesson in leadership was being taught in Richmond. A small group of lawmakers decided they weren't going to run a business whose budget didn't balance, shirk their responsibilities to education, or live in a fantasy world where taxes don't pay for anything. They made a decision for a stronger, better Virginia and for that they should be rewarded.

Jesse Ferguson is executive director of Virginia21, an advocacy group for Virginia's young voters. For more information visit www.virginia21.org.

He may be contacted at jferguson@virginia21.org