Peeks [ Persona ] The Road I’m Taking February 2007

by Tom Torlakson
California State Senator
Images by Russell Byrne

As he comes to the end of his career as a California State Senator, Torlakson reflects upon his accomplishments and his plans for the future.

This past year has been my most successful year ever in my work of generating positive legislation for our great state. The year also included ascending above 12,000 feet on Mt. Ritter with ice pick and crampons, cycling and running in a race from Bodega Bay to the Golden Gate Bridge, white water rafting on the South Fork of the American River with my staff, and biking to the State Capitol on Bike to Work Day.

For Bike to Work Day, I left my Antioch home at 3:30 in the morning and enjoyed a spectacular sunrise over the Delta. Riding along the beautiful Sacramento River I reflected on how this adventure symbolized my work in connecting my community and Sacramento. My public service as a teacher and as a legislator has been about connecting people to opportunity and connecting communities to government – working to solve problems in practical ways that serve to make a difference in the daily lives of my constituents.

My journey has led me from the classrooms of the Mount Diablo Unified School District (where I remain officially a teacher-on-leave), to the Antioch City Council, Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, the State Assembly, and now to my final two year term in the California State Senate.

Rather than winding down as I reach my Senate term limits, I’m finding that the pace of my journey is quickening. I will chair the Senate’s Appropriations Committee – where most bills that would spend state money must pass on their journey to becoming law. I appreciate that Senate President Pro Tem, Don Perata, entrusted me with this top assignment.

As my Senate service winds up, I plan to continue my journey by seeking the voters’ support with a final two-year term in the State Assembly before running for the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 2010.

This office represents an important destination for a teacher – one where I can work to give our state’s children, teachers, and school administrators the tools they need to succeed and keep our great golden state competitive in our global economy.

Working Together to Fix California’s Problems

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them (George Bernard Shaw).

Many people ask me what it is like, as a Democratic member of the legislature, to work with a Republican governor. The answer is that we can choose partisan fights, or we can choose to find common ground to advance our California.

I’ve focused on getting things done – finding “win-win” solutions. Governor Schwarzenegger signed 18 of my bills into law – more bills than any other legislator even sent to his desk. I feel that I’ve accomplished more with issues about which I care the most, such as education and infrastructure, than at any time in the past.

For example, for the past two years I have worked with Senate President Pro Tem, Don Perata, to achieve his vision for changing the direction of the Senate. I agreed strongly that we could exert a more positive and practical impact on the daily lives of Californians.

A top priority for us was improving our state’s decaying infrastructure. Senator Perata made the decision process more effective and rational by combining the Transportation Committee with the Housing Committee in response to the fact that our housing and transportation crises are closely linked. He then asked me to chair the combined committee. We accomplished a lot – including laying out a plan for giving Californians an opportunity to address the state’s incredibly neglected transportation, education, and levee systems.

Funding is always a big problem when you’re talking about infrastructure – or any of the other major statewide challenges. In order to jumpstart our hopes to rebuild California, I helped draft Propositions 1A through 1E – the historic bond package designed to rebuild our state’s education buildings, transportation network, housing, and levees.

Proposition 1A required the Legislature and Governor to spend funds only on transportation that had been gathered from gasoline taxes after the state diverted $2.5 billion of these taxes into non-transportation-related budget items. The initiative earned Governor Schwarzenegger’s backing and acquired significant bi-partisan support. Together we made sure that gasoline taxes would go to improving our transportation network.

We worked together to pass Proposition 1B, a $20 billion transportation bond that will address critical highway and transit needs—to keep our people and our economy moving forward.

On the housing side of the new committee, we have devised a plan to reward cities if they do their fair share of providing the housing for all income levels as required by state laws. We tested this as a pilot project providing monetary incentives by seeding it with 100 million dollars. There was a subsequent and gratifying surge in housing approvals. Proposition 1C provides almost a billion dollars as a substantial incentive encouraging cities to provide affordable work-force housing.

SB 638 was one of my most important bills. I worked with the Governor to improve the implementation and funding of after school programs throughout the state. My legislation streamlines the grant process and provides more than half a billion dollars for vital after school programs. The number of schools offering after school programs is now expected to increase from 1,100 to as many as 5,000.

The great advantage of the bill is in providing for partnerships. Cities can become partners with the state and with local school districts. The legislation also provides for the inclusion of other partners, such as PALs (Police Activities Leagues), YMCAs, and local clubs who partner with a school district to access money from the 70 million dollars available for teen programs. These funds will hopefully make a dent in our state’s unacceptably high drop-out rates.

Another important bill I authored with bipartisan support was SB 1133, which provides additional resources for low-performing schools by returning $2.9 billion dollars to help improve test-scores, plus creating a grant program for lowering class size and providing more counselors for 500 schools identified as being in the lowest 20% when rated by performance.

Going forward, I am joining with state leaders to ensure that we provide a path for success for every California child. We all will suffer in the future if we fail to give every one of our children the chance to succeed.

Searching for Real Out-of-the-Box Solutions
Over the past three years I have joined with other Democrats, Republicans, and state leaders in looking at what California must do in our changing global economy. What can we learn? What alliances can we create? What can California do to help solve problems that are not just national but global in scope?

I’ve traveled to China with bipartisan leaders and witnessed the incredible amount of education and infrastructure investments that the nation has made. We saw new roads, new factories, new ports, and new colleges and universities. We must invest in developing our state’s infrastructure if we will remain competitive and ensure our quality of life.

A few months ago I traveled with a bipartisan group to Iceland, which has the planet’s oldest national parliament. I have a warm spot in my heart for this cold country because my grandfather came from there.

At the end of World War II Iceland was impoverished, but now its per capita income ranks among the highest in the world. Iceland also enjoys a 99+% literacy rate together with very low (3.1 percent) unemployment.

Iceland provides a great example of how smart investments in education and infrastructure can improve a nation’s quality of life and economic competitiveness.

We learned how Iceland managed to become the world’s only nation that is operating with almost no petroleum for its homes and businesses, using instead geothermal and hydroelectric energy sources. We visited a dam that Iceland is building in an environmentally sensitive fashion, faster than we could ever have done it.

We also visited an Icelandic glacier the size of Rhode Island. We traveled up a terrifying trail to the top of the glacier. Along the side of the road we saw signs that catalogued the glacier’s retreat – from its boundary in 1970, then 1980, 1990, and finally 2000. The trip provided sobering evidence of the fact that our planet is definitely warming up.

At one point during our visit we were sitting in the offices of the President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. He spoke about what Iceland needed to do to succeed. He spoke about the new global economy and about Iceland’s heavy investment in education. He warned about global warming.

Most gratifyingly, President Grímsson spent quite a while touting the praises of California. “What you did in California,” he said, “was good for the world. A Republican governor and Democratic legislature came together in a remarkable way.”

Our trip demonstrated how people of good faith can bridge their differences to take steps toward solving difficult problems–like reducing the carbon emissions that are causing global warming.

Health and fitness has always been a major part of my life. I share health and fitness tips with my friends and family by e-mail as well as on my website (www.sen.ca.gov/torlakson).

To help publicize how important health and fitness are, this past year I biked to work from my home in Antioch to the State Capitol in Sacramento. I also founded and chaired the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness to promote healthier lifestyles. Our young people face costly epidemics of obesity and diabetes.

For the past 30 years I’ve sponsored the Holiday Run and Walk for Health in Antioch – a great fitness event I host with the Kiwanis Club of the Delta each December.

Continuing the Journey
I have enjoyed quite a journey so far. From growing up in San Francisco, to trans-oceanic voyages as a Merchant Marine seaman during the Vietnam War, to college in Berkeley, classroom teaching in Concord and Bay Point, and then my political career in Contra Costa and Sacramento.

The best part of the journey is when I get to help real people solve problems facing them. I have been fortunate to author significant legislation that is having a positive impact on the lives of people in Contra Costa, the Bay Area, and our wonderful state. I look forward to many more opportunities to help make peoples’ lives better.

The journey of life should be one that helps all of us reach our potential. As a politician, I want to help create an environment where every child, and every person, has a path to success.

To reach that goal, we must work shoulder-to-shoulder for the good of our state and even for the good of our world.

What could be better than that? °