City's sales tax to rise

(Staff report) - Carson City's sales tax will rise to 7.125 percent beginning April 1.

The increase of .125 percent will be used to pay back the $15 million in bonds issued for reconstruction of the historic Virginia & Truckee Railway.

Though the tax could last for up to 20 years, the Carson City Board of Supervisors is expected to repeal the tax increase once the money has been repaid.

Supervisors approved the tax-rate increase in November.

While consumers who buy things in the city have to pay more and local businesses have to collect it, businesses outside the city that sell into it need to adjust for the tax-rate increase, too, the state Department of Taxation warned.

The first phase of the $40 million train project that will roll between Virginia City and Carson City was completed last year. And the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the V&T Railway announced last week that it has purchased four acres in east Carson City off Drako Way and Highway 50 East to potentially be used as a terminal or engine house. The full 18-mile tourist track is slated for completion in 2009.