Carson City taxable sales up 8.7 percent

Fueled by strong increases in auto, building supply and restaurant/bar sales, Carson City reported an 8.7 percent rise in taxable sales for July.

The capital reported a total of $94.78 million in sales for the month, nearly a third of it — $30.4 million — from car sales.

That’s a 19.9 percent increase for that category but car sales weren’t alone. There was a total of $12.4 million in building material sales, an 8.2 percent increase over the same month in 2016, and an 8 percent increase in sales by food services and drinking places, a total of $9.7 million.

Statewide, total taxable sales were $4.69 billion in July. That’s a 5.3 percent increase.

But the biggest percentage increase reported was in tiny Storey County where taxable sales jumped from $35.9 million to $95.6 million. Nearly all of that is attributable to the ongoing development at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center east of Reno along Interstate 80.

Churchill County also had a banner month, reporting a 27.4 percent gain in taxable sales to a bit more than $26 million. The driver in Churchill was a thousand percent increase in the Utilities category to $3.1 million. Exactly what that translates to wasn’t available since the Department of Taxation keeps details about sales reported by specific businesses confidential.

Washoe County matched the overall state rate with a 5.3 percent gain to $698.3 million. Building Materials sales rose 9.9 percent there to $47.9 million. Beyond that, it was just generally a solid month for Washoe.

Douglas County had a 10 percent increase in total sales to $68.7 million. That came despite an actual decrease of 1.4 percent in the county’s largest taxable sales generator, bars and restaurants primarily at South Lake Tahoe. Building material sales were up just shy of 24 percent to $3.7 million and General Merchandise Stores, Douglas’s second largest category, reported a 6.8 percent gain to $8.9 million. The category reporting the largest single change was Beverage and Tobacco Products that went from just $31,358 a year ago to a bit more than $2 million this past July.