I recently obtained a document distributed by the governor's office detailing the membership list and meeting times and locations of the secret state legislative "working groups."

The governor's office has insisted that not only should legislators dummy up about what goes on at the groups' meetings - which are designed to forge compromises on the governor's "Turnaround Agenda" - but also that outsiders should not even know the membership of the groups or when and where they're getting together.

That's pretty ridiculous. Many moons ago, I began writing about private legislative caucus meetings. That didn't endear me to the powers that be, but I thought the meetings were too important to the Statehouse process to ignore. I still think that, although caucus meetings are somewhat less important these days.

So I exerted a bit of effort and eventually scored the governor's document.

The working group tasked with hammering out a potential tax hike is so secret that its very existence would not be confirmed by members I contacted. Legislators were reportedly warned by the governor's office that if any word leaked about the group, Governor Bruce Rauner would refuse to increase taxes.

Yep, he's a control freak.

A rookie mistake has led to some big problems.

House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton both believed that Governor Bruce Rauner would ask to postpone the scheduled February 18 budget address.

The current fiscal year's outlook was so incredibly dire that the veteran Democratic leaders figured that neophyte Rauner would want to first tackle that problem before moving on to the mess in the budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Rauner declined, declaring that a deadline was a deadline.

He should've asked for a delay.

I don't believe I've ever seen a governor openly and loudly laughed at on the House floor. At least not while he was present.

Governor Bruce Rauner was doing pretty well with his legislative audience during his first State of the State address last week, delivering strong applause lines with his refreshing calls for bipartisanship. He even thanked legislators "for your service," and predicted they would do "great" things together. He warned them that he would say things they liked and didn't like and urged them to see the "big picture" - which he claimed will "lift up all of the people we've been chosen to represent."

Members of the Legislative Black Caucus were especially receptive to the governor's attacks on labor-union apprenticeship programs. Rauner claimed about "80 percent of individuals in Illinois apprenticeship programs are white even though Caucasians make up fewer than 63 percent of our population," and demanded that be addressed with legislation. Black and Latino legislators have tried for years with limited success to break those barriers, and no governor has ever so clearly sided with them.

Legislators erupted in loud applause when the governor proposed raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. But when Rauner added "over seven years," their laughter was even louder, and longer. Democrats appeared to realize that they might've fallen for a bait and switch, and it was mostly downhill from that point on.

We likely received an early lesson last week in how the upcoming state-legislative session will play out with new Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and a Democratic General Assembly.

The Democrats jammed through their plan to limit the term of incoming Republican Comptroller Leslie Munger to two years, with a special election in the presidential year of 2016. Rauner appointed Munger to replace Judy Baar Topinka, who passed away last month.

Rauner remained silent in the days leading up to the special legislative session, but the House and Senate Republicans went ballistic.