Rep. Josh Bonner Highlights Literacy, Property Tax Relief

Literacy, property tax relief, and mental health funding took center stage as State Rep. Josh Bonner addressed the Peachtree City Rotary Club on June 4 about Georgia’s latest budget and legislative priorities.

Bonner, R-Fayetteville, represents Georgia House District 73, which includes portions of Fayette and Coweta counties. He currently serves as chairman of the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee and is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

Introduced by Rotary member Jennifer Lunsford, Bonner reviewed Georgia’s amended Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the Fiscal Year 2027 budget, and several pieces of legislation passed during this year’s General Assembly session.

Literacy becomes a legislative priority

Much of Bonner’s presentation focused on education and literacy, an issue House leadership identified as one of the state’s most pressing long-term challenges.

“The good news is that the graduation rates in the state of Georgia are higher than they’ve ever been,” Bonner said. “Currently, that graduation rate is about 87.2%. The downside of that, only 41% of those graduates test as being proficient in reading.”

Bonner said only 38% of Georgia third graders are currently reading at grade level, a benchmark many educators consider critical to future academic success.

“Not to be too much hyperbole, in a lot of cases we are graduating kids who can’t even read their own diploma,” he said.

To address the problem, lawmakers passed House Bill 1193, the Georgia Early Literacy Act, and backed it with nearly $100 million in funding for literacy coaches, reading assessments, and vision and hearing screening equipment.

“What we did is we essentially put our money where our mouth was when it comes to this effort,” Bonner said.

The legislation funds literacy coaches who will help identify struggling readers early and provide intervention before students fall behind academically.

Bonner connected the literacy initiative directly to Georgia’s economic future.

“The Georgia Department of Labor estimates that by 2028 there’ll be an additional 261,000 jobs created,” he said. “Over 75% of those jobs are going to require a high school diploma.”

Bonner praised Fayette County schools for already investing in literacy coaches and early intervention programs, but said statewide improvement is necessary because workforce challenges affect every community.

Budget investments target growth and services

Bonner explained that Georgia’s constitution requires a balanced budget and that lawmakers typically pass two budgets each year: an amended budget to make midyear adjustments and a full budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Among the largest expenditures in the amended Fiscal Year 2026 budget were $1.7 billion for Interstate 75 express lane expansion, $850 million for the Homeowner Tax Relief Grant Program, $600 million for teacher and state employee salary supplements, $325 million for the new DREAMS needs-based scholarship program, and $409 million for a new state mental health hospital.

“We have not built one of those in at least 30 years, and so it’s more than time,” Bonner said of the mental health hospital. “When you look across the jails and prisons across the state, there’s a lot of folks that are in those institutions that really aren’t getting the help that they need.”

During the question-and-answer session, former Georgia health planning official Jack Bernard challenged the state to invest more heavily in community mental health services, while Bonner acknowledged the issue remains one of Georgia’s biggest challenges.

“I completely agree that across the board mental health is probably the number one issue that we deal with as a state and a nation,” Bonner said.

Audience members also questioned whether literacy efforts should begin before children enter school. Bonner agreed early childhood reading habits are critical but said lawmakers viewed literacy coaches and elementary intervention programs as the most immediate step available.

“I completely agree that it starts young,” Bonner said. “There’s some things we can do right away, and I think that’s probably a second and third step in this process.”

Property tax relief remains a focus

Bonner said affordability was one of the dominant issues debated during the legislative session.

“The Senate had a priority of eliminating the state income tax, and the House had a priority of reducing the burden on property taxes,” he said.

Lawmakers approved another reduction in Georgia’s state income tax rate, lowering it to 3.99%.

Bonner also discussed Senate Bill 33, which limits annual increases in residential property tax assessments to 3% or inflation after a property’s fair market value has been established.

Locally, he highlighted legislation passed by Fayette County’s delegation that would allow Fayetteville, the Fayette County Board of Commissioners, and the Fayette County Board of Education to use revenue generated by the city’s planned data center development to offset homestead property taxes.

“If the data center is going to bring in additional revenue, it gives those entities the ability to use that revenue to offset their property taxes without having to come back every year and ask the legislature to pass a bill,” Bonner said.

The measure will ultimately be decided by voters through local referendums.

Questions from audience members also touched on concerns about transparency surrounding large developments such as data centers. Bonner said land-use decisions largely remain under local control and are governed by local zoning processes and open meetings laws.

Veterans and a local legacy

As chairman of the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee, Bonner also discussed efforts to improve services for Georgia’s nearly 700,000 veterans.

He noted Georgia currently has only two state veterans nursing homes and has not built a new one in more than 40 years.

“For a state our size, we should have at least six of those nursing homes,” Bonner said.

Bonner also highlighted the recently passed Mason Sells Act, named for Fayette County resident Mason Sells, a college student who died after being struck in the chest by a soccer ball during an intramural game at Mercer University.

The legislation requires 911 centers to know the location of every publicly accessible automated external defibrillator, or AED, in Georgia and provides funding to train dispatchers to help callers use the devices during emergencies.

“Scott Sells, Mason’s dad, took it upon himself and made it his mission in life to make sure that tragedy did not happen to anybody else,” Bonner said.

Bonner closed by reflecting on the community he represents.

“It has simply been the honor of a lifetime in representing the community that I grew up in,” he said. “I absolutely love our community, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to serve.”