just don't raise Smiff's phokking taxes

News item: The blazes outstripped the 2003 fires that many in San Diego County considered a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that caught officials and residents flatfooted. The resulting controversy brought calls for reform, but San Diego voters declined to fund improvements for the fire department, the smallest per capita for any large city in the country, said Steve Erie, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego who is writing a book titled "Plundered Paradise."