As the legislature’s special session crawled from the starting line, the Speaker of the House pulled a familiar tactic out of his toolbox.

Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) says pretty much what he’s been saying, because he says his goal is pretty much what it’s been.

“We ought to work on balancing the budget. That means there should be cuts and new revenue,” Madigan told reporters after a House Democratic caucus Wednesday afternoon. “I’ve said that for two and a half years.”

Then Madigan issued a news release announcing a Committee of the Whole on workers compensation Thursday and a property tax freeze Friday — just as House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) feared.

“The time for just having vague, general discussions is over,” Durkin said at a news conference earlier Wednesday. “Time for the Committees of the Whole are over. We’re done with that. We’ve heard this time and time again over the past two years.”

The Committee of the Whole allows witnesses to testify before the entire House, with Madigan’s goal being to spotlight the effects of what would happen if Gov. Bruce Rauner’s economic agenda becomes reality.

The special session runs through the end of the fiscal year, June 30.