Churchill County’s taxable sales jump 25%

Churchill County’s taxable sales increased 25.4 percent to $22.36 million in October. But that is the first good month Churchill has had this fiscal year.

For the year to date, Churchill is still down 25 percent compared to a year ago.

The county improved in a handful of categories. Food manufacturing shot up from 16,931 in taxable sales to $765,824. Another big-ticket category — Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods — rose 30.9 percent to $2,049,891 from $1.5 million. Nondurable Goods also showed a modest increase to $382,872.

Furniture and Home Furnishing stores rose 31 percent to $448,190.

Stores dealing in general merchandise or specialty goods also increased their taxable sales. General Merchandise Stores, which includes Walmart, rose 3.6 percent to $3.4 million, while Clothing and Clothing Accessory stores and Sporting Goods increased 53 and 649 percent, respectively.

Repair and Maintenance jumped 43 percent to $851,815, but Food Services and Drinking Places, which has been in positive numbers for most of the fiscal year, dropped 13.9 percent to $2.2 million.

Neighboring Lyon County too saw a double digit increase over a year ago — 10.1 percent to just over $34 million in taxable sales.

Taxable sales jumped 9.2 percent in the capital to $69.6 million.

Statewide taxable sales for October 2014 of $4.083 billion represent a 4.9 percent increase over October 2013. The largest increases in statewide taxable sales came in Food Services and Drinking Places, up 7.5 percent; Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers, up 9.0 percent; Electronics and Appliance Stores up 25.8 percent; Utilities, up 91.6 percent; and Nonstore Retailers, up 33.8 percent.

City Finance Director Nick Providenti said that, at 8.2 percent up for the first four months of the fiscal year, Carson City is well ahead of the 3.5 percent growth used to build the city budget.

He said it was a good month all around for Carson. Auto sales, the city’s largest tax generator, were up 8.90 percent for just over $20 million while General Merchandise Stores, the second biggest tax category, was up 9.8 percent to nearly $12.4 million.

One category that stood out in the October report was sporting goods. With the opening of the Sportsman in the Carson Mall, taxable sales there doubled compared to a year ago, adding $1.11 million to the total.

But Providenti pointed out that building material sales were up 11.2 percent to $5.9 million and Wholesale Durable Goods up 19.8 percent to $4.6 million.

Like Carson, Douglas County had a strong month, reporting a 13.2 percent increase over October 2013 to $54.5 million in taxable sales. That increase was driven by the 18 percent increase in Food Services and Drinking Places, Douglas’s largest sales tax category — the casinos at Stateline. Total sales reported there were $10.5 million.

Washoe County was up 10.8 percent to $562.6 million. Specialty Trade Contractors and several manufacturing categories were up double digits. Building materials sales increased more than 9 percent and a number of retail categories enjoyed solid increases.

In addition, Food Services and Drinking Places saw a 10.5 percent increase to $81.6 million in October.

Storey County, still buoyed by the Tesla-fueled boom, reported a 28 percent increase to $8.9 million for the month.

But all those increases were offset significantly by double digit decreases reported in several rural, mining-dependent counties. Total sales were off 42.5 percent in Eureka, 23.8 percent in Humboldt, 31 percent in Nye and 18 percent in Pershing County.

Statewide, total sales were up 4.9 percent to just a bit more than $4 billion. The strongest increase for the state was in the Accommodations category, which increased by 64 percent to more than 22.7 million, nearly all of the increase coming from Clark County which was up 5.3 percent overall.