CARSON CITY, Nev. — Taxable sales in Nevada totaled $5.41 billion in March. While that’s an increase over March 2017, it’s only by four-tenths of a percent.
Taxation Director Bill Anderson said the numbers would have been significantly better, except two categories were facing an extremely difficult comparison. Scientific and Technical Services and Wholesale Durable Goods posted huge numbers a year ago, and with that result, the first was off more than 11 percent, with Durable Goods down 18 percent this March.
For the first nine months of the fiscal year, five Nevada counties are up double digits from fiscal 2017. Four are rural counties, and the fifth is Carson City, which is 10.1 percent ahead of last year, reporting total sales so far of just more than $845 million.
For this March, Carson City had $98.78 million in taxable sales, a 3 percent gain. That increase was almost completely driven by a 16.1 percent increase in auto sales, the capital’s biggest tax generator, with $28.7 million.
That was offset by significant decreases in Carson’s second, third and fourth biggest categories. General Merchandise Stores were down 15.3 percent from a year ago at $14.5 million, Food Services and Drinking Places was off 5.7 percent to $9.67 million, and Building Material sales off 10.3 percent to $8.9 million.
Churchill County leads the four rural counties up double digits this fiscal year at 22 percent — total taxable sales of $269.7 million. The Utilities category is a major driver there, up 61 percent for the year so far to $19.3 million. But in March, taxable sales were just more than $29 million, a decrease of 14.5 percent.
The others in double digits for the fiscal year are White Pine at 21.4 percent or $208.6 million, Nye at 17 percent or $504.2 million and Eureka at 11.6 percent and $229.6 million.
In Douglas County, fiscal year totals are up 8.7 percent to $578.9 million. But Douglas had a banner March, posting a 33.9 percent gain compared to the same month of 2017.
Total taxable sales for the month were $78.5 million including a large boost in Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing from $106,569 to $15.4 million. Douglas also saw a 10.6 percent increase in its largest taxable sales category. Eating and Drinking Places, the Stateline casino resorts, reported $14.67 million in sales.
Washoe County reported a 4.3 percent increase in March to $721.6 million. That area is up 6.6 percent for the year at $6.36 billion in taxable sales.
