November taxable sales up slightly

Taxable sales for November were up 2.1 percent over November 2012, rising to more than $3.7 billion.

Food services reported an 8.1 percent increase statewide, with auto sales up 7.5 percent. They are two of Nevada’s largest tax generators.

Accommodations also had a good month, reporting a 26 percent increase over a year ago.

Carson City fared a bit better than the state, reporting an increase of 3.5 percent overall despite the fact that the capital’s two largest taxable sales categories, auto sales and general merchandise stores, offset each other.

While car sales were up 2.4 percent to $16.26 million, general merchandise sales slipped 2.2 percent to $13 million.

Building material sales were up more than 14 percent to $5.1 million, and food-service sales increased 4.3 percent to $6.8 million.

Although a relatively small category, heavy and civil engineering had a banner month in the capital, up 555 percent to $240,696 in sales.

Total taxable sales for the capital were $62.1 million.

Carson City’s monthly report paled in comparison to that of Churchill County, which had a 16.8 percent increase for the month. But all of that increase came in the utilities category, which went from just over $2 million in November 2012 to $9.39 million this past November.

Along with that, construction was up from less than $13,000 a year ago to more than $1 million this November.

Those increases were offset to a degree by a 10.3 percent decrease in auto sales and a 2.6 percent decline in the general merchandise.

Total sales in Churchill were $25.38 million.

Douglas County also had a good month, reporting a 9.3 percent increase to $46.5 million.

Home furnishings and building materials sales were up 16.6 and 13 percent, respectively. Food services — the county’s largest contributor primarily because of Stateline’s casinos at Tahoe — were up 7.2 percent to $9.4 million.

Lyon County reported $28.4 million in sales, an 11.5 percent improvement over a year ago.

Major contributors included auto sales (up 19.4 percent to $2.56 million), building materials (up 10.2 percent to $2.47 million) and general merchandise (up 19.9 percent to $3.9 million).

But Lyon also had a couple of surprise contributors: Wholesale durable good increased 57 percent to $2.2 million, and nonmetallic mineral manufacturing increased 92 percent to $2.45 million.

Nevada’s two largest counties, Clark and Washoe, were up 5.7 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively. Those gains were offset by double-digit decreases in counties including Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt and Nye.