UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff is spearheading a proposed 2010 state ballot initiative that would allow a simple majority of California's legislature to decide about the state budget and revenue.

Lakoff, a cognitive sciences and linguistics professor, said the passage of the California Democracy Act would amend the state constitution to end "minority rule," under which "one-third plus one of either body of the Legislature can block the majority and cause gridlock." The legislature needs a two-thirds majority to approve taxes or pass a budget.

He added that minority rule is consequently the source of a host of budgetary problems, including the UC system's financial difficulties.

The text of the initiative as submitted to the state Office of the Attorney General read, "All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote." He said the idea for the act came earlier this year during a meeting with state legislators.

"I found that the Democratic (Party) majority is not able to … do what has to be done," Lakoff said. "Democracy needed to be brought to the state of California."

The act would negate a portion of Proposition 13, a 1978 state initiative that mandated that "any changes in state taxes enacted for the purpose of increasing revenues" must obtain a two-thirds majority.

According to Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which focuses on protecting Prop. 13, the California Democracy Act would lead to higher taxes, hurting businesses and residents.

"Who wants to have more taxes?" he said. "We're actually losing taxpayers because we have a hostile climate to businesses and taxpayers."

In a May 2008 statewide poll of registered voters by Field Poll, roughly 70 percent of respondents disapproved of changing Prop. 13 to "enable the state legislature to increase taxes by a simple majority vote."

But Lakoff, who focuses on the political applications of cognitive linguistics, said that the current polls do not accurately capture the true opinions of voters due to their phrasing.

"No poll has asked about minority rule, whether that's a good thing," he said. "What has been asked is, 'Do you want to raise taxes or make it easier to raise taxes,' which is too general and misleading. When you hear that, you wrongly think it will significantly increase your individual taxes."

Lakoff, a registered Democrat, added that the act does not have to do with benefiting the legislature's current Democratic Party majority.

He said the current state budget crisis will offer his initiative an advantage over past measures that have failed, such as Proposition 56, which would have lowered the threshold to increase revenue and pass budgets to a 55 percent majority of the legislature. The measure was defeated in 2004 with 65.7 percent opposition.

According to Lakoff, a statewide campaign will soon begin to train speakers, conduct polls and attempt to gather the 694,354 signatures that are needed from registered voters in order to place the measure on the November 2010 ballot by April 16.

Vosburgh said that his organization would not pay much attention to the campaign for the California Democracy Act unless it gained the needed signatures, something that he doubts will happen.

"(The Act) has no money … and it's not going to qualify," he said. "There is no sentiment that perhaps outside of (Lakoff's) classroom or the city of Berkeley it has support. It's an exercise in futility."

Tags: PROPOSITION 13, STATE BUDGET, GEORGE LAKOFF