ATLANTA --- Capitol insiders note that Rep. Ben Harbin seems a little less sunny and a tad more weary this year as he oversees the budget-writing process in the House.
Still, they say his deference and easygoing manner are the perfect prescription for guiding the Legislature through the challenges of cutting $2.3 billion or more from the state budget.
Mr. Harbin, a veteran GOP legislator from Evans, heads the House Appropriations Committee, which has the job of managing the governor's 500-page, $20 billion budget proposal.
"I think he has, probably, the perfect temperament to deal with where we find ourselves today with a (nearly) $2.3 billion hole in the budget, so to speak," said Rep. Mickey Channell, R-Greensboro, the chairman of the Health Subcommittee. "In very trying and difficult times, it's good to have a chairman who stays grounded, if you will, because these are tough, tough decisions we are having to make right now."
Mr. Channell, one of nine vice chairmen reporting to Mr. Harbin, credits his colleague with delegating rather than trying to hold all of the power himself -- and with following up on what he's asked the vice chairmen to do.
Mr. Harbin also has been willing to share the financial duties with the heads of other standing committees, said Rep. Jill Chambers, R-Atlanta, who heads the House Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Oversight Committee.
"He has given us pretty much free range to question and examine the budgets as we see fit, and he encourages us to dig into the agency spending," she said. "Having that from the committee chairman has helped us uncover some superfluous and unnecessarily statutory requirements that has helped us save the state some money."
Ms. Chambers points to nearly $250,000 in possible savings from the repeal of a statute requiring the Commission on Automation of the Courts to publish an annual report she says no one reads.
In trying to cut out nearly $1 of every $10 the state spends, Mr. Harbin is looking for every program he can eliminate.
He and the committee have found a few cuts -- some in programs the governor might have left for legislators to trim as a way to preserve spending in other areas. Other cuts were things the governor might have not considered.
Mr. Harbin said relations have been smooth with the governor and the Senate on the budget, a departure from recent years when disagreements escalated to name-calling, vetoes and overrides.
Mr. Harbin has been in the House since 1994, which included a decade as a member of the minority party. Even then, he was generally liked by Democrats.
When Republicans took control of the House, they had to learn how to govern without having been part of past budget negotiations. They trusted Mr. Harbin with the keys to the treasury as appropriations chairman.
It was a big test, said House Majority Leader Jerry Keen, R-St. Simons Island.
"Chairman Harbin has probably had the most difficult job to do up here. And he has done it," Mr. Keen said. "I mean, he is just far exceeding just anything any of us could have hoped for."
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