Taxable sales up 7.5 percent in July, 7.7 percent in Carson

Taxable sales rose 7.5 percent statewide in July, including a gain of 8.8 percent in Clark County, bringing the total monthly sales to just a hair under $5.05 billion.

But that increase was reined in by huge decreases in total sales in two small counties. Storey and Nye both saw decreases of more than 40 percent for the first month of the new fiscal year.

In Storey, sales by specialty contractors fell from $9.4 million to just $3.8 million while wholesale durable goods dropped from $20 million to $8.1 million and building material sales from $1.2 million a year ago to $823,758. The Professional, Scientific and Technical Services category also fell dramatically from $52.8 million to $29.6 million. All those numbers tie directly to activity at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and result in a decrease of 43 percent.

In Nye County, total taxable sales fell 46.8 percent from $98.2 million to $52.2 million. Just two categories were the big difference. Machinery Manufacturing was down from $15.3 million a year ago to just $2.4 million this July. Non-metal Product Manufacturing suffered a similar dip — from $39.9 million a year ago to just $769,742 this time around.

Carson City had a solid month, reporting a 7.7 percent increase to $102.1 million in taxable sales. But unlike most months, it wasn’t auto sales that drove the increase. In fact, that category was down 1.6 percent to $29.89 million.

Construction of Buildings was up from just $3,227 a year ago to $210,450 this July. Building Material sales rose 12.9 percent to $14 million and General Merchandise Stores by 7.8 percent to $13.34 million. Health and Personal Care stores almost doubled last year’s sales to $2.47 million. Miscellaneous retailers and non-store retailers were both up more than 20 percent.

Douglas County reported a gain of 8.2 percent to $74.4 million in sales. In an obvious statistical anomaly, the Accommodations Category reported $30.39 million in sales compared to Zero dollars last July, offset by a negative $11 million under the Food Services and Drinking Places category that, last year, was up $18 million.

The actual growth came in a number of categories including 30.5 percent in building materials — $7.5 million — and 85.6 percent increase in Specialty Trade Contractors to $2 million and 7.7 percent more in auto sales to $2.55 million.

Churchill County was one of three counties with lower taxable sales for July, falling 4.1 percent to $24.99 million. While auto sales were up 11.8 percent to $4.9 million and building material sales 26.4 percent to $2.29 million, a dozen other, smaller categories were down for the month erasing those gains.