Cloothing stores such as Wal-Mart drove up the taxable sales in Churchill County in August.
Churchill County was in the black with its taxable sales, but only by 3.2 percent in August.
Comptroller Alan Kalt said the year-to-date increase is up 21 percent from $39.6 million to $47.9 Million.
Kalt also said the Consolidate Tax Distribution summary for August is indicating a gradual improvement by showing $439,034 was taken in compared $434,545 a year ago.
A 17.9 percent increase in Food Services and Drinking Places was offset by a 14.8 percent decrease in auto sales, Kalt noted. Building Materials sales kept the county positive with a 27 percent increase to $1.77 million.
Wholesale Durable Goods, an indicator that usually shows positive tax numbers, increased 32 percent from one year ago to $1.32 million. Since school opened early in August, the taxable sales for clothing and supplies all came in strong. Clothing and Clothing Accessories finished at $763,683, up from $202,000 in August 2014. Sporting Goods increased 4.3 percent and General Merchandise Stores, which is anchored by Wal-Mart, came in at 4.5 percent, an increase of about $160,000.
Miscellaneous Store Retailers finished with a huge jump of 154 percent to $373,206.
Driven by Utility and Building materials sales, Carson City’s taxable sales rose 7.2 percent to $79.5 million.
That is substantially better than the 2.2 percent gain reported statewide.
The Utilities Category was up more than 67 percent to $540,282. The big gain was in building materials sales, which increased 36.6 percent to more than $8 million for the month.
In contrast, construction industry classifications statewide including building materials were actually down 25 percent.
Total state taxable sales reported for August were $4.1 billion.
Like Carson City, Washoe County had a good month, reporting an overall increase of 6.9 percent to $611.4 million.
There, the telecommunications category jumped dramatically from $5.8 million to $14.3 million — 144 percent — and Food Services and Drinking Places saw a 10.5 percent increase to $98.8 million.
Douglas County also had a 6.9 percent gain in August even though its largest tax revenue generator, Food Services and Drinking Places, was essentially flat (down a percent). But Food Manufacturing increased from just $41,558 to more than $5.6 million and auto sales increased 27.5 percent to $3.69 million.
Lyon County reported a 3.4 percent increase to $30.8 million in August.
Statewide Building Material sales were up 9.2 percent and Machinery Manufacturing up 43 percent. Most positive numbers came from outside Clark County.