Sales flat in June; Carson falls nearly 9 percent

Taxable sales fell just three-tenths of a percent in June as 10 of Nevada's 17 counties reported increases over June 2009.

Carson City, however, wasn't one of those counties. The capital reported an 8.9 percent decrease in taxable sales to $59.6 million for the month. The big hits were to the capital's two largest sales tax categories. Auto sales fell 25.5 percent to just more than $11 million and General Merchandise sales dropped 7.9 percent to $10.4 million.

The final statewide total of $3.33 billion was helped by an influx of $37.8 million in taxes reported under the amnesty program. Without that money, the month would have been down

1.5 percent.

Taxable sales finished the fiscal year 10.3 percent down compared to fiscal 2009 - $42 billion.

The general fund portion of tax collections came in 3.45 percent, or $25.2 million, above the amount projected by the January Economic Forum.

Douglas and Churchill counties fared better in June. Douglas was up

2.4 percent over the previous June to $49.27 million while Churchill reported an 11.1 percent jump to

$25.58 million.

In Douglas, there were double digit increases in several large categories including furniture stores, electronics and appliances, building materials and health and personal care stores. Miscellaneous stores reported a 62 percent jump to $2.3 million. Those increases were needed to offset a 10.8 percent drop in the county's largest category - $9.3 million in sales at eating and drinking places which is driven by business at the South Shore casinos.

Also up were Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Lincoln, Pershing, Storey, Washoe and White Pine.

Lyon was down, but only by 2.7 percent, reporting $26.8 million in taxable sales.

Clark and Washoe were essentially flat for the month. The 1 percent dip in Clark resulted in $2.43 billion in total sales while the three-tenths increase in Washoe produced

$473.45 million in sales.