development surrounding The Depot .
Cleburne Finance Director Troy Lestina explained that , as per state law , up to 10 percent of a city ’ s 4A revenues may be used for promotional purposes .
To be eligible , local businesses had to be located within Cleburne city limits , be current on property taxes and meet other requirements . Eligibility did not extend to national chains or franchises associated with a parent company .
“ The goal was to very inexpensively promote the community but also get cash in the hands of our local businesses ,” Cleburne Mayor Scott Cain said .
Councilman Chris Boedeker agreed and spoke to the importance of the program ’ s overall benefit to the community .
“ As our shops begin to reopen we need to shop local if we want to see Cleburne continue on the path we ’ ve been on [ before the pandemic ,]” Boedeker said . “ Every dollar that leaves Cleburne is a dollar that leave one of our small businesses .” A second round — $ 100,000 or 20 $ 5,000 grants — came in October . Funding for that round derived from the federal CARES Act , federal money distributed to states and cities to offset COVID-19-related costs .
“ We didn ’ t have quite as much funding available for those grants through the CARES Act as we did in our first round , but we wanted to do what we could to help our local businesses ,” Easdon said . “ Essentially both programs were a way to get money out to our small business owners who had been hit so hard and were struggling from the COVID pandemic ."
It was the voters , Cain said , who ultimately helped Cleburne business survive in a time of need .
“ When the governor shut down the state , we wanted to come up with a way to hale small businesses survive ,” Cain said . “ The All Aboard Cleburne program not only helped get cash to many of our small businesses , it helped us unit to showcase Cleburne .
“ What few folks know is that it was only because voters had approved the Cleburne Station project a few years ago that we were able to use an advertising provision of the 4A sales tax provision to get cash to many of our local small businesses .
“ Little did anyone know when we passed the measures for Cleburne Station that we would need it to help our current small businesses weather the storm . It took our entire community to come together and support local businesses and creativity to help get cash available through the Cleburne Station program . And of course , the businesses themselves adapted .”
38 Cleburne This is Texas