State taxable sales up nearly 9 percent for December

Taxable sales were up 8.7 percent statewide in December, for a total $4.62 billion.

Carson City was among those enjoying the boom with an 8 percent increase to $98.8 million. But Douglas County, which has been growing dramatically for more than three years, suffered a setback in December. Its total sales went down 2.5 percent to $76.5 million. Douglas was also down in November by 3.2 percent.

Douglas was hit hard by a 17 percent decrease in sales through general-merchandise stores, a 3 percent drop in miscellaneous retail and a 9.6 percent decline from a year earlier in auto dealers and gasoline sales. The tiny 1.2 percent increase in eating- and drinking-place sales wasn't enough to put them back in the black.

But Douglas is still up 5.2 percent for the first half of the fiscal year.

Carson City saw a 37 percent increase in the special-trade construction category and a 469 percent increase in general contracting. But general-merchandise store sales grew more than 41 percent over the December 2004 totals - largely because of the new Wal-Mart, which wasn't open a year ago. Carson's numbers for the fiscal year are up 8.1 percent overall.

Washoe County also had a good December, growing 7.9 percent to more than $709.7 million. Washoe is up more than 10.3 percent so far this fiscal year.

Lyon County continued its boom with a 27.5 percent increase to $40.3 million in December. All construction and retail categories are growing there, mostly because of growth in the Dayton corridor and Fernley areas.

And Churchill County reported a 30.1 percent increase to $34.97 million.

But taxable sales were off in Storey County by nearly 32 percent. Miscellaneous retail sales were cut nearly in half to $1.1 million compared with December 2004 - accounting for the majority of the decrease.

In addition to Douglas and Storey, four other counties turned in negative reports in December: Esmeralda, Eureka, Lincoln and Mineral.

Statewide, the growth was driven by an increase in construction categories, which were up nearly 34 percent for the month.