During the public participation time at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, local members of the 38th Assembly District Republican Central Committee presented an economic stimulus plan to the Council.  

The plan detailed a gift card program which would provide $300 gift cards, good for Santa Clarita Valley businesses, to anyone who purchases a new or used vehicle from a local dealership. Additionally, the plan calls for $100 gift cards to be given out for the purchase of a new or used motorcycle valued at $5,000 or more.

Residents would also be allowed to receive a $30 gift card if they spend more than $300 at any local retail business under the proposal.

The plan is similar to a segment of Lancaster’s economic stimulus package , presented in February, which also offers gift cards to local businesses with the purchase of a new vehicle.

So far Lancaster must be seeing success with the program, as the 38th Assembly District Republican Central Committee’s proposal indicated that local dealerships have lost business to dealerships in Lancaster and Palmdale.

“In these tough economic times, it serves us well to provide this ‘win-win’ stimulus program to our own local auto dealerships as well as to the citizens of Santa Clarita,” said Paul Strickland, who presented the proposal to the City Council.

The proposal calls for at least $300,000 in City funding for the gift cards, and it aims to create a two-pronged attack to both stimulate activity for local dealerships and for local businesses once the gift cards are purchased and redeemed. 

City staff will analyze the plan, but no comments were made at Tuesday’s council meeting.

A 21-point economic stimulus package was recently approved by the council and is already being implemented city-wide. To read about that package, click here .