Geothermal tax abatements skew Churchill’s taxable sales

Taxable sales, both statewide and for the Carson City area, posted solid year-over-year increases in October.

The statewide total was $3.89 billion — a 6.1 percent increase.

Statewide miscellaneous manufacturing grew by 298 percent — mostly in Clark County, where that category reported $68.4 million for a 322 percent rise.

Churchill County was hard-hit by a refund in the electrical equipment and appliance manufacturing category, which posted as a $5 million negative on the balance sheet. In addition, utilities sales were down 12.7 percent to just over $2 million, and mining support activities were off more than 81 percent to just $49,393 in taxable sales.

Churchill finished the money down 17.1 percent from a year ago at $17.8 million in total sales. The negative numbers were figured into the taxable sales one year ago because of tax abatements granted to alternative energy, specifically geothermal.

The county, though saw a significant gain in Merchant Wholesalers, Durable Goods with a 35 percent increase to $1.5 million. Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers increased 17.9 percent ($3 million), Building Materials and Garden Equipment (16.8 percent to $1.6 million; Food and Beverage, 19.2 percent, $1 million; and Food Services, 12.6 percent to $2.6 million.)

Carson City’s total was $63.76 million — a 4.7 percent improvement over October 2012.

According to the Department of Taxation, motor vehicle sales were strong across the state, rising 7 percent. In Carson City, where car sales are normally the top tax generator, the increase was 11.4 percent to $18.45 million.

That, however, was offset significantly by the 1.2 percent decrease in the capital’s second-largest category, general merchandise stores, which reported $11.3 million in sales. Statewide, that category did a bit better, posting a 2.9 percent increase for the month.

The food services and drinking places category, however, helped out with $7.8 million in sales, a 12.3 percent increase. Wholesalers of durable goods also helped build the capital’s total taxable sales with $3.7 million, up 16.1 percent over the same month of 2012.

Similar to the capital, Douglas County was up in October. Total sales were $48.1 million, an increase of 6.4 percent. As in Clark, miscellaneous manufacturing was a big contributor, up 269 percent to just over $2 million. The county’s biggest category, food services and drinking places, was down 3.7 percent to just over $8.9 million.

Lyon County posted a 15.6 percent gain with taxable sales of $30.9 million. That is on top of Lyon’s 155 percent increase in September and puts the county up 71 percent for the fiscal year with $123.5 million in total taxable sales.

For the fiscal year through October, Carson City is up 3 percent and Douglas County is up 2.8 percent. Churchill, however, is down 12.8 percent from 2012.

Statewide, the total taxable sales for fiscal year 2013 are up 6.3 percent to more than $14.6 billion.