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Tom Torlakson keeps his sights on the Bay Area. (Photo: Sirlin Photographers)
November 2002

Legislative Award:
State Senator Tom Torlakson Tom Torlakson’s political career has taken him from Contra Costa County supervisor and MTC commissioner to state assemblyman and state senator. Throughout, he has exhibited a passionate interest in transportation issues and regionalism, and an ability to turn that passion into concrete legislation with far-reaching impact — traits that have earned him this year’s John F. Foran Legislative Award.

The jury cited several recent accomplishments in giving Torlak-son (now a state senator represent- ing Alameda and Contra Costa counties) the Foran Award, named for the Bay Area’s longtime representative in Sacramento who authored the bill creating MTC. Top among these is Torlakson’s Senate Bill 873, passed by the Legislature this year, which sets into state law MTC’s Regional Transit Expansion Program. The bill reflects a consensus among Bay Area elected officials and state legislators as to priorities for the next wave of rail extensions, express bus lines and other public transit expansion projects in the Bay Area, paving the way for future state and federal grants.

Torlakson also authored a bill that was a key element of the Traffic Congestion Relief Program, signed into law in 2000. The package gave transportation its big- gest one-time cash infusion in over a decade, enacting a $6.8 billion, five-year spending plan targeting urban traffic congestion around the state.

And in 2002, he introduced an ambitious bill aimed at curbing the Bay Area’s urban sprawl and strengthening the connections between land-use decisions and transporta-tion investments in the region.

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