Never underestimate the power of a polite reply.

For the last several weeks, the progressive group Better Georgia has conducted a contact-your-lawmaker campaign to protest Georgia Public Broadcasting’s hiring of former state Senate majority leader Chip Rogers at a $150,000 annual salary. Click here for background.

Better Georgia was able to egg state Sen. Bill Heath, for instance, into a composing a rude response sent in reply to emails that included this:

“It appears that you may have been conned into signing an online petition concerning the hiring of Chip Rogers.  I doubt that you even knew what you were allowing your contact information to be used for.”

It got worse, as Heath dallied behind a state Capitol printer for more than 45 minutes rather than face down a TV reporter.

But other Senate Republicans have learned from Heath’s example. Last week, they voted down a Democratic amendment to a budget bill that would have eliminated $150,000 from GPB. Another round of constituent protests ensued.

But here’s the thoughtful response from state Sen. Jack Hill, R-Reidsville, who chairs the Senate budget committee:

"Thanks for your email. My point is that cutting GPB only hurts their programming. The Executive Branch hires and fires employees and the Legislature only appropriates to general programs. Someone who disapproves of hiring decisions has several options including ceasing to become a member, writing the CEO, writing the Governor etc.

 "All a cut of $150,000 at the budget level does is to reduce operating funds that could cut programming. Plus, members had every opportunity to bring up this or any issue during the committee process and failed to mention anything. A budget is the work of the Senate and has input from every member. Just about everyone can find something they don’t like in a $19.3 billion budget, but we are required to govern and move ahead in order to provide vital services to Georgia citizens.

"This was a political move and the wrong move, in my opinion, for the Senate. Frankly, there are members of my party who would put GPB out of business if they got the chance. GPB can present a liberal bias at times, but overall they seem to be plugged into the state and on balance I think do a good job. Maybe Chip Rogers can bring a conservative point of view to the network."

As noted this morning, state Sen. Fran Millar posted this defense on his Facebook page:

“Did not support Senator Rogers. The vote was on an amendment to the Amended Budget and the Rogers component was only one part. If it was free standing then I would have supported it.”

State Sen. Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, sent a response to a constituent that included this:

“I have never met Mr. Rodgers and wouldn’t know him if he walked past me so I have absolutely no allegiance to him at all. I don’t know all of the particulars of his hiring other than what I got from the news. I do know that cutting GPB’s budget $150,000 would have compounded an already bad situation and those that would have suffered the most would have been our children. We don’t have the ability in our process to remove his specific salary but I would have if possible.”