State tax receipts reflect slowdown

Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Collections from the state's gaming and sales taxes dropped $25 million in the last quarter, and Gov. Kenny Guinn said today he intends to continue the freeze on hiring of state workers.

The governor said today that collections from sales and use taxes amounted to $178.9 million for September, a 9.3 percent decrease compared to September 2000.

The governor said however that things are picking up, such as sales of autos with no interest financing.

Guinn said Nevada was in better shape than many other states and he did not see any necessity at the present time to dip into the state's "Rainy Day" fund, which totals more than $125 million.

The governor, at a news conference, said receipts from the gaming tax for the first four months of the year are down about $10.6 million from what was projected. And he said sales and use tax collections are about $7 million to $8 million short of the projections for the first three months.

In addition to that, the state has to make up about $7 million in sales tax receipts that the local school districts won't get.

That totals about $25 million. But he said the state had an unexpected extra $24 million starting this fiscal year.

He said he will continue the hiring freeze, which will save about $1.7 million a month. And if the economy doesn't pick up, he will cut some one-shot items, such as purchases of new autos.

But he said the three top priorities of his administration -- pay raises for state workers, education and health -- will not be touched.

"Under the circumstances, we're optimistic about the preliminary figures we're seeing in October," he said. Weekend room occupancy at the hotels in Las Vegas has rebounded to in excess of 95 percent during the last five or six weekends. And occupancy during the week has climbed back to 70 percent.

And he said car sales are phenomenal. Auto sales are one of the biggest contributors to sales tax revenue.