Sales tax collections at pre-Walmart levels

Sales tax collections in Douglas County for the fiscal year ending on June 30 approached levels of 10 years ago, before much of the retail shopping in northern Douglas County existed.

According to an analysis conducted by The Record-Courier, taxable sales in the county were $508.65 million at the end of June 2000.

Figures released by the Nevada Department of Taxation on Friday showed county merchants collected $537.18 million during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

That is the lowest reported collection for the year since 2000.

The take for this fiscal year is even lower than that during 2001-2002, which included the economic downturn after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Douglas County merchants posted a 2.4 percent increase in taxable sales in June compared to June 2009.

The county had $49.27 million in taxable sales for the month, about $1.17 million more than the same month a year ago.

June's results close out the 2009-2010 fiscal year, showing Douglas had a decrease of 8.1 percent over the prior year. Merchants had $537.18 million in taxable sales this year, a decrease of $47 million over the previous year's sales.

Numbers were released by the Nevada Department of Taxation on Friday.

One of the county's biggest categories is food service and drinking places, which posted a 10.8 percent decrease for the month. The category accounts for a quarter of the sales in Douglas County, much of which occur at Stateline.

Building materials and Garden equipment, which accounted for about an eighth of June's total, was up 10.7 percent for the month. That didn't make much difference to the 15 percent drop for the year in that category.