The Knox County Commission has committee meetings scheduled Monday and Tuesday before the entire body takes up the mayor's proposed budget on Wednesday. If last week's interminable and almost entirely pointless "review" of the proposed grants budget is any indication, many of us could be eligible for Social Security before a budget is passed.

It probably won't come to that, of course. From where I sit, Ragsdale is close if he doesn't already have the votes to pass his budget on first reading, warts and all. What follows is pure Kentucky windage. Nonetheless, if a binding vote was on tap today, here's my "handicapper:"