Auto sales drive taxable sales increase in Carson City

A 21.5 percent increase in auto sales drove a near double-digit increase in Carson City’s taxable sales in April.

The capital’s car dealers sold a total of $24.9 million worth of vehicles.

That was backed up by a 6.5 percent increase in building material sales — a total of $11.3 million. Carson’s other major tax producers, General Merchandise Stores increased 3.4 percent to $11.3 million while Food Services and Drinking Places reported just more than $8 million in sales, a 5.2 percent rise.

Overall, Carson sales were $82.3 million, up 9.3 percent from the previous April.

Statewide, taxable sales were $4.36 billion in April. That’s a 5.9 percent increase over April 2015. Auto sales helped lead the way with a 10.3 percent increase with Food Services close behind at 6.7 percent.

In Churchill County, several major increases contributed to a 61.5 percent increase from $14 million to $22.6 million in taxable sales. The biggest single jump was in building material sales which grew from $1.6 million to $5.7 million.

Food manufacturing in Churchill grew from a tiny $49,940 a year ago to $1.3 million.

There also were smaller but solid increases in a variety of other categories.

Douglas County did nearly as well as Carson City, growing 8.6 percent to $50.3 million in April.

Food Services and Drinking Places — Douglas’s largest sales tax generator — grew 23.4 percent to $11.3 million. There too, auto sales gave total sales a big boost. The total of $3.8 million is 28.8 percent more than a year ago.

Washoe County had an even better month, reporting a 20.6 percent increase to $630.7 million.

Auto sales accounted for some $15 million of that increase ($97.1 million total) and at $90.2 million, Food Services and Drinking Places accounted for $10 million of the increase. Building materials increased by nearly $3.5 million and a number of other categories by $2 million or more to make up a total increase of nearly $102 million.

In Lyon County, the story wasn’t nearly as good, but it was all attributable to a single category that spikes up big time a year ago. Electronics and Appliances store sales dropped from $30.5 million in April 2015 to a much more normal $273,941 this April.