Mining counties continue to suffer economically

While Nevada's urban areas continued their steady rise in taxable sales during September, rural counties hard hit by the collapse of mining were suffering.

According to figures released by the Nevada Department of Taxation, Clark County reported a 5.5 percent drain in total taxable sales while Washoe recorded 3.8 percent more and Carson City 4.7 percent.

However, nine counties reported decreases in total taxable sales for the month. The biggest decreases are in the counties hardest hit by mine cutbacks and closures.

Hardest hit were Esmeralda and Eureka counties. Esmeralda was off 36.9 percent for September dropping to $655,620 and 59.3 percent for the first quarter of the fiscal year dropping $1 million.

Eureka's taxable sales dropped 63 percent in September to $11 million, bringing the quarter's totals down 50.8 percent to just $36.6 million.

Mining has been on a downward spiral for more than a year because gold prices are depressed to fewer than $300 an ounce. That has forced many major mines in the state to cut back operations while smaller and more marginal operations shut down. The industry has lost more than 500 jobs in the past year, according to the state's employment security division.

The result - far fewer purchases in those counties.

In addition, Lincoln County sales dropped 59.5 percent in September to $1.2 million, Mineral County sales were off 21.8 percent to $3.6 million and White Pine was off 18.5 percent to $6.5 million.

Also in the red for September were Churchill, Elko, Humboldt and Nye counties.

Statewide, those negative numbers dragged the overall increase down to 4.3 percent compared to September of 1999. Total taxable sales this past September were $2.7 billion.

Carson City reported $70.4 million in taxable sales for September and $204.2 million for the quarter. Thus far this fiscal year, the capital's total sales are up 6.1 percent.

Douglas County showed a 31.8 percent increase in taxable sales - $62.2 million - and $163.7 million for the quarter. The reason for Douglas's huge year-over-year increase is that the new shopping center just south of the Carson City line is still less than a year old. Those increases are expected to drop off dramatically at the end of October when the first of those "big box" stores will have been open a full year.

The biggest increases in taxable sales were reported by miscellaneous retail businesses, up 9.1 percent, and business services which increased 12.5 percent.

Food stores actually registered a decline of 7.9 percent in total taxable sales for the month.