Retail sales in Nevada level off

Friday, June 25, 1999 | 12:25 p.m.

SUN CAPITAL BUREAU

CARSON CITY -- For the first time this year, business activity in Clark County didn't produce a double-digit percentage increase in April.

The state Taxation Department reported Thursday that taxable sales, one indicator of the strength of the economy, rose to $1.6 billion in April, or 8.2 percent over the same month a year ago in the Las Vegas area.

Department officials said this was still a strong showing. In the first three months, the percentage increases in Southern Nevada ranged from 10.6 percent to 16.7 percent.

Department Director David Pursell said statewide taxable sales rose to $2.2 billion, up 6.7 percent from April 1998.

The largest April increases, he said, were in bars and restaurants, up 11.7 percent statewide; general merchandise stores, up 16.8 percent; car sales, up 8.9 percent; home furniture sales, up 13.4 percent and miscellaneous retail, up 9.6 percent.

Sales in Washoe County inched up to $358.3 million, up 2.2 percent; Carson City rose to $56.6 million, up 3 percent; Elko County dropped 5 percent to $52.3 million, apparently because of the sluggish mining economy; and Douglas County was off nine-tenths of a percent to $32.7 million.

A breakdown in Clark County showed $317 million in taxable revenue from the bar and restaurant business, up 14.7 percent; car sales reached $208.3 million, up 18.7 percent; sales of home furniture totaled $89.3 million, up 15.8 percent; business in general merchandise stores rose to $129.4 million up 22.7 percent; but the building materials and hardware sector fell to $107.6 million, down four-tenths of a percent.

Pursell said statewide collections from the state's 2 percent sales tax reached $46.5 million in April, up 8.3 percent from a year ago.

Receipts from the cigarette tax fell to $1.1 million, down 12.9 percent; the liquor tax yielded $1.5 million, up 5.2 percent and the motor fuel tax produced $23.2 million, up 2.1 percent.

So far this fiscal year, the sales tax for state government has generated $465.1 million, up 10.1 percent. That's above the 8.7 percent increase predicted by the Economic Forum in April.