Two of the state's richest men, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, have each contributed $100,000 to the Defeat I-1098 campaign.

Initiative 1098 would create a 5 percent tax rate on annual income exceeding $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples, and a 9 percent tax rate on income that tops $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for couples. It also would cut state property taxes by 20 percent and newly exempt 118,000 businesses from the state business and occupation tax.

I'm sorry, but Jeff Bezos and Steve Ballmer are dingleberry-festooned assholes. They have plenty of money. But more to the point, all the dough from I-1098 goes into education and health care (the Education Legacy Trust Fund). Microsoft is always playing reveille on its butt trumpet about the importance of education funding. They're concerned about a state brain drain. But they're part of the problem.