Taxable sales up in Carson City; $30.6 million in auto sales

Total taxable sales reached $5.03 billion in August, up 5.3 percent compared with August 2017.

Led by nearly $30.6 million in auto sales, Carson City nearly doubled the statewide gain at 10.4 percent — a total of $104.5 million.

Building Material sales in the capital were up double digit — 10.3 percent to $11.8 million. Wholesale Durable Goods was also up double digit — 12.4 percent to $7.3 million.

But the biggest percentage gain came from Churchill County where businesses reported $64.28 million in sales, a 148 percent increase over a year ago. All of that increase was attributed to the Construction of Buildings category, which accounted for $38.9 million, more than half the total.

Douglas County reported a 13.7 percent increase to $72.7 million despite a 21 percent decrease in that county’s largest sales generator, Food Services and Drinking Places. That category reported just $12.6 million in sales. But Douglas saw a 36.6 percent increase in Building Material sales to $5 million and a 33.9 percent increase in auto sales to $4.9 million. More than a dozen other categories helped out with increases as well.

Clark County also had a strong month with a 6.4 percent gain to $3.6 billion.

But those increases were offset by decreases in other counties, especially Storey and Washoe.

Storey, where monthly numbers are directly tied to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, saw a 35 percent decrease from $95.3 million a year ago to $61.6 million this August.

Washoe, while down just 2.3 percent this time, reported $739.4 million, a decrease of $18 million.

Lyon County was flat at $45.4 million for August. That is a decrease of just three-tenths from a year ago.

Taxation Director Bill Anderson said the take-away from the August numbers is that Nevada is at 98 consecutive months of growth and, when the July and August numbers are combined nine of the top 10 taxable sales categories and 15 of the state’s 17 counties are up this fiscal year.

The state portion of collections from the August sales totaled $99.7 million, a 6 percent increase from last year.