§ 8.01-653.1.Mandamus to secure construction of act granting power to incur certain obligations for transportation needs.

This section runs parallel to § 8.01-653 but is aimed specifically at transportation financing. When the Comptroller notifies the Attorney General in writing of doubt about the constitutionality of an act granting a Commonwealth agency or other governmental board or entity general power to incur obligations for transportation needs subject to General Assembly authorization, the Attorney General must file a petition for a writ of mandamus in the Supreme Court, directing the Comptroller to pay as the act provides at the proper future time. Unlike § 8.01-653, which lets the Attorney General choose whether to file, this section makes filing mandatory.

The timing rule reaches further than the general appropriations version: the petition can be filed after the act’s enactment even though the General Assembly has not yet enacted legislation specifically authorizing the agency to enter particular obligations under its general power, or, if it has, even before the time for payment has arrived and before any demand has been made. The statute states its own purpose for allowing this early filing — to expedite long-term planning by the agency and its advice to the Governor and the General Assembly about alternative ways to finance Virginia’s transportation needs. As in § 8.01-653, the Supreme Court has to resolve every constitutional and interpretive question the petition raises, even those not strictly necessary to decide the Comptroller’s payment duty.

The Comptroller is made a party defendant, the court may add other officers or persons as it deems proper, and any attorney employed to represent a defendant officer has compensation fixed by the court and paid from the appropriation to that officer’s own office or department.