Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991                   TAG: 9102220139
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TAXABLE SALES GAIN SLIGHTY IN WESTERN VA.

Retail sales, released Thursday by the Virginia Department of Taxation, were running ahead in Roanoke until November, when they declined, said Joel Schlanger, the city's finance director.

The totals for Roanoke County and Salem, meanwhile, edged up during the three shopping months just prior to Christmas.

Montgomery County sales gained $3.5 million or 2.9 percent, but that was far less than the 10.5 percent increase reported in the last quarter of 1989, said Jeff Lunsford, the county's fiscal manager.

The county reduced its tax estimates last fall "because we're not seeing the growth we thought was there," he said. Yet Montgomery is more fortunate than many other places, Lunsford added.

Frank Turk, Salem's finance director, said tax collections from fourth-quarter sales there were about $10,000 ahead of a year ago, but Salem's sales "have pretty well flattened out."

And when the figures are adjusted for inflation, a small gain amounts to a decline from a year ago, Turk said. Last year's national inflation rate was 6.1 percent, a figure heavily influenced by higher gasoline prices after the Persian Gulf crisis began.

Bedford, Henry County and Martinsville were the only other areas in the region where taxable sales declined in the October-December quarter. Most areas had increases of no more than $3 million. The figures for Clifton Forge and Craig County were flat.

State sales in the fourth quarter rose about $100 million from a year ago.