Opinion ID: 1202187
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Financing Authority

Text: TAB's premise, that the financing mechanism or fee chosen by the City must be authorized separately and apart from authorization of the project itself, is flawed. Whether the primary function is undertaken pursuant to the police power or pursuant to statutory authorization, a municipality is vested with the ability to engage in actions necessary to implement that function. Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. v. Jones, 105 Va. 503, 512, 54 S.E. 314, 317 (1906). In order to exercise the duty and authority to provide a water system then, the corresponding ability to pay for the system must exist. We agree with the trial court that the ability to finance the cost of providing this service is inherent in the authority to provide it, and the specific mechanism chosen by the City to finance the project need not be defined by statute. Furthermore, it would be unrealistic, inefficient, and unnecessary to require the General Assembly to define every aspect of each mechanism available to a municipality to finance projects such as the Lake Gaston undertaking. While the City has the authority to finance the project, it is not completely free to adopt any mechanism it chooses. Statutory and constitutional directives must be respected. Actions undertaken in the exercise of the police power must be reasonable and cannot unduly restrict citizens' constitutional rights. Assaid v. Roanoke, 179 Va. 47, 18 S.E.2d 287 (1942). Similarly, where a power is implied from a statutory grant, the reasonable selection rule requires that the exercise of the implied authority be reasonable and consistent with legislative intent. Commonwealth v. County Bd. of Arlington County, 217 Va. 558, 575-77, 232 S.E.2d 30, 42 (1977).