Auto sales boost July tax gain

What may be a record total for auto sales turned a good month into a great one for Carson City.

The capital posted total taxable sales of $68.9 million in July, a 7.8 percent gain from July 2012.

While most of the categories were pretty good, auto dealers racked up a total of $19.94 million, a 21 percent increase over last year.

City Finance Director Nick Providenti said anecdotally, dealers have told him August too was on a record pace, but that was before the smoke from the Rim fire kept people indoors for more than a week. He said he doesn’t know how that will affect taxable sales for August.

He said the increase starts the fiscal year at double the 3.5 percent growth used to build the city’s budget.

“So the first month gives us a little wiggle room,” Providenti said.

Wholesale of durable goods also was strong, posting a 25.2 percent gain to more than $5 million in sales. Utilities were up just shy of 27 percent at $449,822 in sales. Building materials sales showed a 5.4 percent gain to $6.2 million.

But general merchandise stores, the city’s second biggest category, was down 1.2 percent to $11.2 million.

Douglas County also had a solid month, up 6.6 percent to $59.26 million. Wholesale of durable goods was up 33 percent there to $3.88 million. Douglas auto sales were modest compared to Carson City — up 6 percent — but general merchandise sales increased more than 18 percent to $7.9 million.

The biggest category there is food services and drinking places — primarily the Stateline casinos. They reported taxable sales of $15.67 million for July.

Churchill County was up 8.8 percent for the month to $24.3 million. Utilities purchases more than doubled to $5.47 million, making that the county’s largest sales tax generator for the month. Wholesale of durable goods was also strong with a 73 percent increase to $1.7 million. Motor Vehicle sales increased 5.7 percent to $3.1 million.

Lyon County reported a 12.6 percent increase in July, generating $28.88 million in taxable sales. The biggest single factor was a 147 percent increase in wholesale of durable goods — a total of $2.74 million. Auto sales helped with an 8.7 percent gain to $2.8 million, as did several manufacturing categories including Nonmetallic Mineral Manufacturing which had a 34.7 percent increase to $1.58 million.

Statewide, businesses reported a total of $3.77 billion in sales — an increase of 6.2 percent over July 2012. Across the state, there was a 20.7 percent increase in auto sales and the various construction categories turned in a 16 percent overall increase.

Overall, revenue collections totaled $293.9 million in July, a 5.8 percent increase. The General Fund portion of those collections came to $74.49 million, a 5.9 percent increase or $2.1 million below the forecast used to build the state budget.