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Honorable Aubrey L. Layne, Jr.
June 2, 2017
Page 4
The General Assembly has not enacted comparable language for the Commission. 15 Without that
specific grant of authority, I must conclude that the Commission is not authorized to utilize public funds
to insure and to guarantee loans to a private airline. 16
Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, it is my opinion that the action of the Peninsula Airport Commission
in guaranteeing a bank loan to People Express Airlines is an extension of public credit within the ambit
of the prohibition in the Credit Clause contained in article X, section 10 of the Constitution of Virginia.
As such, it is permissible only if the General Assembly has specifically authorized the Commission to
insure or guarantee such extensions of public credit under the exception to the Credit Clause. It is my
further opinion that the General Assembly has not so authorized the Commission.
With kindest regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Mark R. Herring
Attorney General
Portsmouth Port Commission), as amended, has the independent power "[t]o provide financing by leasing, selling,
which shall include selling by pocket deeds, or making loans for facilities for a§ 50l(c)(3) organization, including
all items of cost for such facilities and for working capital for use by such § 50l(c)(3) organization, and to adopt
such resolutions and to enter into indentures, contracts, instruments and agreements as may be expedient to issue
qualified § 501 ( c )(3) bonds and to provide for such loans and any security therefor." Those powers are found at
§ 25(a) of their legislative authority. See http://law.lis.virginia.gov/authorities/portsmouth-port-and-industrial
commission/.
15 The Commission is empowered to "do all things necessary or convenient to the purposes of this Act. Grant of
regulatory authority by this Act, including regulations that displace, eliminate or limit competition by or among
persons or entities, is based on the policy of the Commonwealth to provide for the safe, adequate, economical and
efficient provision of air transportation and related facilities and services to the public." Peninsula Airport
Commission Act, at§ 3(r) (1946 Va. Acts ch. 22; 1964 Va. Acts ch. 270; 1968 Va. Acts ch. 777; 1989 Va. Acts ch.
270). This language cannot reasonably be interpreted to authorize the Commission to guarantee private credit, since
doing so is not one of "the purposes of [the] Act." Further, the General Assembly could easily have given the
Commission the explicit power to guarantee private debt as it did for the Virginia Small Business Financing
Authority, yet it chose not to do so. When interpreting legislation, one must "assume that the legislature chose, with
care, the words it used when it enacted the relevant statute." Alger v. Commonwealth, 267 Va. 255, 261 (2004)
(internal quotation marks omitted). Further, under the doctrine of expressio unius est exclusio alterius, the "mention
of specific item in a statute implies that omitted items were not intended to be included within the scope of a statute."
GEICO v. Hull, 260 Va. 349, 355 (2000) (internal quotation marks omitted). The clause in question does authorize
certain specific activities-such as limiting competition and providing safe air transportation-but it does not
mention guaranteeing private debt.
16 Nor does the Commission, as a political subdivision of the Commonwealth, have the implied authority under
the Dillon Rule to insure or guarantee such a loan. See Commonwealth v. Cty. Bd. of Arlington Cty., 217 Va. 558,
562 ( 1977); 1985-1986 Op. Va. Att'y Gen. 91, 93.
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