July taxable sales, fueled buy auto sales, rise across Northern Nevada

Northern Nevada merchants saw modest increases in business in July as taxable sales rose over the same month in 2016, according to a report from the state Department of Taxation.

Across Washoe County, July sales rose by 5.3 percent over the year, with the Reno-Sparks region’s biggest generators showing increases, including:

Vehicles and vehicle parts: up 1.5 percent.

Restaurants and bars: up 4.5 percent.

Merchant wholesalers: up 0.5 percent.

Building materials: up 9.9 percent.

General merchandise stores: up 4.9 percent.

Across Carson City, July taxable sales rose 8.7 percent over the year, with the region’s biggest generators showing increases, including:

Vehicle and vehicle parts: up 19.9 percent.

General merchandise stores: up 2.2 percent.

Restaurants and bars: up 8 percent.

Building materials: up 8.2 percent.

Merchant wholesalers: up 29.7 percent.

Across Douglas County, July taxable sales rose 10 percent over the year, with the region’s biggest generators showing mixed results, including:

Merchant wholesalers: down 7.4 percent.

Vehicles and vehicle parts: down 22.2 percent.

Building materials: up 23.9 percent.

General merchandise stores: up 6.8 percent.

Restaurants and bars: down 1.4 percent.

The key growth sectors for the statewide total of $4.7 billion in taxable sales were machine manufacturing, up 72.1 percent; restaurants/bars, up 7.2 percent; autos and auto sales, up 4.4 percent; and construction-related business, up 5.2 percent. Even with the July increases, the state General Fund portion of the sales tax is 3.77 percent, or $3.56 million, below the Economic Forum’s May forecast for the current fiscal 2018 year that will end next June 30, 2018.