PDA works to repay state $10.5 million in start-up loans

PORTSMOUTH - The Pease Development Authority staff is working to come up with a way to pay the state back the $10.5 million still owned on the loans made to the authority to get it going. In June, Gov. John Lynch announced that he would ask the PDA to repay the money as part of his plan to short circuit a growing budget deficit. The money was owed the state as part of the original 1991 bonding used to set up the PDA when the U.S. Air Force decommissioned the former Pease Strategic Air Command Base and turned it over to the state. The PDA’s Financial Director Irv Canner on Thursday presented the board with a series of scenarios that would allow the agency to comply with the governor’s request. Canner also called for a meeting of the PDA board’s Finance Committee to discuss the options. “The options are based on how much we can... [read full story]