(The Center Square) – Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has announced his top 25 priority bills for the Texas Senate to consider for the regular 89th legislative session.
After the worst border crisis in U.S. history, border security bills don’t make the top five.
Patrick says his top priority bills “represent the will of the conservative majority of Texans” and many will pass with bipartisan support.
The top three priority bills include SB 1, the Senate’s proposed budget, which is nearly identical to the one proposed in the Texas House; SB 2, which would create a $1 billion Education Savings Account program for 100,000 students; and SB 3, which bans THC, tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.
Rounding out the top five priorities is SB 4, a proposal to increase the homestead exemption to $140,000, and $150,000 for seniors, claiming it will reduce property taxes; and SB 5, allocating $3 billion to create a Dementia Prevention & Research Institute of Texas.
Patrick lobbied to increase the homestead exemption in the last legislative session, arguing it would offset property tax increases, which proved not to be true. Property taxes remain a top concern after the legislature claimed it passed a property tax reform bill in the last legislative session but property taxes still skyrocketed. A loophole in the bill allowed local jurisdictions to increase property taxes by nearly 10%, sparking public outrage.
The Senate’s dementia proposal would cost half of the state’s border security budget, raising questions about the use of taxpayer money when the funds could be generated from private sources.
Additionally, Texans across the board have said they want the legislature to prioritize border security funding and the economy, The Center Square reported.
Rounding out the top 10 priority bills are SB 6, to increase the reliability of the Texas grid; SB 7, to increase investments in Texas’ water supply; SB 8, to require local law enforcement to assist the federal government’s deportation efforts; SB 9, bail reform; and SB 10 to put the Ten Commandments in public schools, which likely will be challenged in court if it becomes law.
SB 8 relates to the federal 287-g program and is similar to those proposed in other states.
Previous legislative bail reform efforts haven’t stopped judges from releasing violent repeat offending criminals onto the streets only for them to commit another violent crime.
Priority bills related to education and children include SB 11 to enable prayer in public schools; SB 12, to create a Parental Bill of Rights; SB 13, to prevent “inappropriate books” from being in public schools; SB 18 to stop “Drag Time Story Hour;” SB 20, to stop AI child pornography; SB 24 to educate Texas students about the “horrors of Communism.”
Other priority bills appear to copy proposals made by tech billionaire Elon Musk: SB 14 would create a Texas Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE; SB 21 would create the Texas Bitcoin Reserve.
Another appears to copy a proposal by President Donald Trump’s nominee for Department of Health and Humans Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: SB 25, to “Make Texas Healthy Again.”
Other priorities include SB 15, to remove barriers to affordable housing; SB 23, to remove the cap on the Rainy Day Fund; SB 19 to stop taxpayer funding of lobbyists; and what many describe as corporate welfare, SB 22, which allocates millions of taxpayer money through tax credits to incentivize film companies to make movies in Texas after they’ve been making them in Texas for decades.
Two other priorities relate to border security: SB 16, to stop noncitizens from voting; and SB 17, to prevent foreign adversaries from purchasing land in Texas.
Patrick notes that bills that aren’t listed including border security funding, hiring more state troopers, and enhancing statewide disaster response, are still important.
“Just because a bill is not included in the top 40 does not mean it is not a priority for me or the Senate. There will be hundreds of bills that pass the Senate, all of which are important to Texas,” he said.
In the last legislative session, Patrick later increased the number of priority bills to 30. This year, he says he’s increasing it to 40.