"Don't let them take Granny's money!" a signature gatherer was braying outside of a Safeway store last June. There was a crowd on hand to see the classic cars at the Greenwood auto show and to their credit, most of the gear heads didn't notice the bold-faced lies coming from the I-920 petition table. The petition effort itself seemed like a pretty low rent affair, with its picnic table and solitary barker, given the initiative's backers are a pair of millionaires, Martin Selig and John Nordstrom.

But the strategy seems to be working. Last week the secretary of state announced that Initiative 920, which seeks to repeal the estate tax, has enough signatures to appear on the November ballot.

The estate tax was passed by the Washington State Legislature last year, and aims to provide as much as $100 million a year in education funding for new enrollments and financial aid for higher education. The tax only applies to estates larger than $2 million and the state figures that something less than 300 such estates would be affected.

So the magic-strength-potion cry at the Greenwood Auto Show should've sounded something like:

"Don't let them poor college-seeking kids take less than 20 percent of one of the state's 300 richest grannies' money - especially Granny Selig and Granny Nordstrom."

What is with this town and its entitlement millionaires channeling Gordon Gecko? Why do we have to rob from children aspiring to get an education and give to the offspring of designers of behemoth office towers and faux Fran