Taxable sales fell again in November, but not as much as officials had expected. Sales dropped 10.9 percent to just more than $3 billion for the month.
But Taxation Director Dino DiCianno told the Economic Forum on Friday that he had expected worse. The average over the first five months of this fiscal year is 18.1 percent down from the same period last year.
DiCianno said the numbers are a hopeful sign that the statewide decline may at least be slowing.
The worst numbers are still in the construction industry classifications - off by a whopping 44.6 percent for the month. Motor vehicle sales were down 9.3 percent. But that is the first time in a year their decline has been in single digits.
In Carson City, the overall drop was 13.5 percent, driven in large part by a reduction of more than 15 percent in auto sales. Total taxable sales for the capital were $51.58 million, $10 million of which was in auto sales.
Carson's general merchandise stores logged more sales than car dealers with $11.5 million. That is down from a year ago, but only by 5.6 percent.
Statewide, general merchandise sales were off just 1.5 percent in November.
Douglas County fared much better than the capital in November with total sales falling just 1.6 percent to
$43 million.
But with the deep slump in South Shore casino business, the food and drink category is no longer Douglas's economic mainstay. Total sales for the month in that category were $6.6 million compared to $7.3 million for general merchandise stores.
Sales in Lyon County fell 13.1 percent in November to $23 million.
In Storey County, total taxable sales fell 67.7 percent. The blame can be put almost completely on a 97 percent reduction in the mining category. Taxable sales in mining there dropped from $6.6 million in November 2008 to just $139,617 this past November.
Taxable sales in Clark County were down 10.7 percent to $2.26 billion while Washoe was off 13 percent to $398.7 million.