February tax numbers up 5 percent, Carson up 9.3 percent

Taxable sales increased 5.1 percent in February compared to the same month of 2015.

The total was just more than $4 billion for the month.

Carson City did even better, recording a 9.3 percent increase to $71.7 million led by auto sales, traditionally the capital’s largest sales tax generator. That category accounted for $21.1 million of the total, a 15.1 percent increase.

General Merchandise Stores, the capital’s second largest generator, reported a 3.8 percent increase to just more than $11 million. Food Services and Drinking Places reported $8.3 million in taxable sales, an 11.3 percent increase, and Wholesaler’s of Durable Goods a 38 percent increase to a bit more than $5 million.

Those same categories were key to the statewide increase as well with auto sales up 10 percent, and Food Services and Drinking Places up 6.3 percent. Wholesale Durable Goods reported a 6.8 percent rise statewide.

But statewide, construction industry categories were down for the first time in a number of months — by 8.5 percent in February. Carson did better there with Building Material sales up to $6.98 million — albeit just a 2 percent gain.

Like Carson City, Douglas County had an excellent February, gaining 10.6 percent to $47.48 million.

The key there was Food Services and Drinking Places — primarily the casinos at south Lake Tahoe, which is Douglas’s largest tax generator. Those resorts logged $12.7 million in sales, a 24.8 percent increase over the same month of 2015.

But auto sales also were up sharply — 47.1 percent to $2.7 million — and General Merchandise Stores increased 6 percent to $6.9 million.

Those gains were, however, offset by an 18.2 percent decrease in Building Material Sales.

Churchill County’s numbers were essentially flat at $19.87 million. While Food Services and Drinking Places saw a 132 percent increase to $2.86 million, and Building Material sales rose 18.5 percent to $1.5 million, auto sales wiped out most of those gains with a 19.1 percent decrease to $3.59 million. Technically, Churchill finished the month with a decrease in total taxable sales of two-tenths of a percent.

Lyon County was down 3.2 percent to just more than $27 million. Auto sales dipped 12 percent to $3.35 million there, neatly offset by the 9 percent increase in General Merchandise Store sales at $3 million.

In addition, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Mineral, Pershing and White Pine counties all recorded decreases.

While Clark County gained 3.7 percent to a bit more than $3 billion in total sales, Washoe County boosted the statewide total significantly with a 20.5 percent increase to $589.6 million in February. A significant part of that increase was in taxable sales by hospitals which rose from $683,497 a year ago to $20.1 million.

In addition, auto sales were up 18.6 percent to $86.7 million in Washoe.

Despite a solid February, Taxation officials say the General Fund portion of the sales tax is still 1.4 percent or $10 million below the Economic Forum forecast used to build the state budget.