CARSON CITY -- A state report Thursday shows that halfway through the fiscal year, Nevada merchants sold $25 billion in goods for a 3 percent increase, while tax collections based on the sales are slightly below projections.

The state Taxation Department report on the July-December sales also showed that in December, statewide sales totaled $4.7 billion, up about 1 percent.

A breakdown of the December sales showed seven Nevada counties had decreases, while the other 10 had increases. For the fiscal year to date, eight counties show increases in taxable sales, while the rest showed decreases.

Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, accounted for $3.4 billion of the December sales, down 0.8 percent over the same month a year before. Over the first half of the fiscal year, its sales total was $17.66 billion, up 2.6 percent.

Washoe County, which includes Reno, had $718.8 million in December sales, up 0.9 percent. So far this fiscal year, its sales total is $3.74 billion, down 0.4 percent.

Storey County had the biggest sales decrease in December, down about 31 percent; Eureka County was high with a gain of nearly 293 percent.

Carson City was down 5.6 percent in December, while Churchill County was down about 13 percent and Elko County was up about 27 percent.

The combined taxes based on the December sales totaled $441.2 million and are split among the state, schools, cities and counties. The state's share is $97 million for December.

For the first half of fiscal 2006-07, the state's portion is running $2.7 million, or 0.3 percent, below the estimate projected in November by the state's Economic Forum.

"The gains for December and the six-month fiscal year comparison are comparing month-to-month sales activity to phenomenal double-digit growth a year ago," Gov. Jim Gibbons said in a statement.