An East Bay state senator is leading a bipartisan effort to revamp term limits for California legislators.

State Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, introduced a state constitutional amendment that would reduce the number of years one can serve in the Legislature from 14 years to 12 but extend the amount of time one can serve in each chamber — that is, the 12 years total could be three four-year state Senate terms, six two-year Assembly terms or any combination thereof.

Lawmakers currently can serve no more than two four-year terms in the state Senate and three two-year terms in the Assembly; all current and former lawmakers would still be bound by these limits set by Proposition 140 of 1990.

The new rules would take effect with those elected to office in November 2010.

That’s a major difference between this and last year’s Proposition 93, which would’ve made the same term-limit changes but would’ve “grandfathered” current lawmakers into extended terms.

That proposition was derided as a power grab by then-incumbents such as state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles; 53.6 percent of voters defeated that measure.

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, and state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, have signed on as the Hancock amendment’s co-authors. It’ll require two-thirds votes of both Legislative chambers to be placed on the ballot for voter approval.

“If anything has demonstrated the need to revise the term-limits law, it is certainly the disastrous budget process we have been going through,” Hancock said in her news release.

“Increasingly, inexperienced legislators are dealing with increasingly complex challenges and a dysfunctional governance system,” she said. “The existing term limits don’t allow legislators the time and stability to develop the expertise and hands-on legislative experience to forge positive solutions for the very big challenges facing California.”

Hancock said the amendment follows the recommendations of the 1996 California Constitution Revision Commission.

Martha Montelongo, who helped lead the opposition to Proposition 93, said it’s amazing to her that lawmakers would suggest this given the public’s overwhelming lack of confidence in them.

Amid a fiscal crisis, she said, asking for more time in office is “not very inspiring.”