SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered double defeats this weekend to Assemblyman Bill Maze, R-Visalia, vetoing the legislator's bills to boost economic development at Porterville's airport and to prohibit drivers from holding pets.

Assembly Bill 1884 would have allowed the Tule River Indian Tribe and Porterville to create a joint powers authority that could issue bonds and promote development on 1,200 acres near the city's airport.

"As I had said before in vetoing similar measures, allowing a tribal government that is not subject to all federal, state and local laws to participate in the exercise of public power, particularly off reservations, diminishes public accountability," the governor wrote in his veto message.

Governor's suggestion

He added that tribes instead can work with cities and counties through agreements or memoranda of understanding "as contemplated in the tribal-state compacts my administration has executed.” I encourage the proponents of this measure to pursue their objectives in this manner," Schwarzenegger concluded. Maze could not be reached for comment. The tribe now operates an aircraft-maintenance business at the airport and wants to develop a casino and hotel on 74 acres it owns in the 1,200 acres earmarked for recreational and commercial development in the proposed joint venture area. Tule River now operates casino on its reservation east of Porterville. Before it can open a casino near the airport, the tribe must first get its property there placed in federal trust status. The casino was not part of AB 1884. The joint power authority would have been run by a five-member board consisting primarily of city and tribal officials.