Sales tax collections maintain their deep dive in Carson City
Sales tax collections, the life’s blood of funding for city services, fell 14.5% last December, compared to December of 2008. The average drop around the rest of Nevada was -6.6%
Douglas County sales tax collections were off 10.4%, Lyon County was down 20%. Washoe County fell by 8.9%, and the Las Vegas area saw their December sales tax collections drop 8.4%
The large drop for Carson City puts a bigger strain on the Board of Supervisors which is already facing a series of budget cuts that could mean employee salary reductions or out and out layoffs. City finance officials say they’re watching the numbers closely with an eye to having a clearer financial picture ready for Supervisors’ review within a week to ten days. They say the 14.5% sales tax drop in December is about what they expected, a major decline during the last Christmas shopping season.
Year to date, Carson City’s retail sales tax collections are down nearly 16%, again about what finance officials predicted.