Lt. Governor Dan Patrick visits El Paso

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick visited El Paso to talk about the recent Texas state legislature.

Patrick recently called the legislature the "most conservative and successful legislative session." The Senate passed all 40 of their high priority bills this session, including the largest school choice program in American history.

Patrick said that the bill to raise the homestead exemption was the one he is most proud of. It is part of a large property tax cut that will allow schools to pay teacher more.

The cut could be as large as $51 billion, as well as 8.5 billion going towards public schools across Texas.

"Since I've been Lieutenant Governor and Governor Abbott has come in, we have focused on taking the burden off the taxpayers... this was a great session to cut school property taxes, to put more funding into our public schools, but primarily to make our teachers paid as the professionals they should be."

Another large bill that Patrick focused on was the bill that banned the sale of THC in Texas. He called it a poison, and that smoke shops were creating loopholes to sell TCH-infused products to children near schools.

"They're targeting our students to make them lifetime dependent on drugs. In El Paso, we had testimony from a woman who lost her 22-year-old son who was high on this THC from a smoke shop that stepped out in front of a train and was killed."

Patrick also addressed Senate Bill 8, which says that county law enforcement must comply with federal immigration enforcement. Patrick said that bill was something President Donald Trump had as a priority.

"You need every weapon you can have as a force multiplier. And that's where we need our local law enforcement to back up ICE and Homeland Security. So that's just common sense."