Gas, construction inflation turn up in taxable sales

A big jump in gasoline and construction materials appeared in state sales tax statistics for March.

Taxable sales of building materials jumped 42.6 percent, or almost $3 million over March 2021, according to figures released by the Nevada Department of Taxation.

Gasoline jumped 34.6 percent to $450,512 for the month as gas prices approached $5 a gallon. They’ve gone way above that now.

Inflation likely accounted for the increase in both cases.

Meanwhile sales at general merchandise stores were down 9.6 percent to $10.2 million and online retailers took a similar hit, dropping 8.3 percent to $8.7 million.

Two sectors associated with the Stateline casinos, gambling and accommodations saw big jumps over March 2021. But food services and drinking places saw a 3.8 percent dip to bring in $10.85 million.

Overall, Douglas saw a 4.9 percent increase in taxable sales to $92.9 million for the month.

A lack of snow contributed to lower gaming revenues in April with the Stateline casinos reporting a 15 percent drop to $18.49 million.

According to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, that leaves Stateline down 5.51 percent at $194.9 million going into the fourth quarter.

Casinos in the East Fork and Carson City townships were up 2.23 percent to $11.85 million.

Douglas County saw a very small increase in unemployment rate to 3.1 percent in April up from 2.9 percent in March. There were 673 jobless workers in the county during the month.