Healthy sales

Gross revenue collections from sales and use taxes totaled $266.3 million in the month — an 8.8 percent increase over a year ago and a 7.4 percent increase in the first five months of fiscal 2012, which began July 1. The general fund portion of sales and use taxes was above the projections of the Economic Forum, the nonpartisan group of economists that forecasts tax revenue for state budgeting purposes.

That’s all good news, though we have to remember these are improvements when compared to 2010, which wasn’t exactly boom times.

In fact, construction-related sales continued their years-long slide in November, dipping 15.9 percent statewide and 9.5 percent in Clark County.

That’s why local employment levels — which inched up by about 1 percentage point — haven’t kept up with retail sales gains, explaining in turn why some smaller local retailers are still shutting down, a process that economists sometimes label the cheerier moniker “consolidation.”

Nor can sustained growth return until a backlog of vacant and/or soon-to-be-foreclosed homes is cleared — a process ironically retarded by political efforts to drag out proceedings as much as possible.

Southern Nevada remains in “early recovery” and is unlikely to return to pre-recession sales levels in 2012, says Steve Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Overall, a more stabilized environment is emerging, and we’re beginning the recovery process in general,” adds Brian Gordon, a principal in the local research firm Applied Analysis. “But we have miles to go before we have moved beyond the devastating effects of this past recession.”

Good news is always better than bad news. But there’s still a long hill to climb.