Sales up here: Taxable sales and purchases not only increase in Oil Patch
June 19, 2012 at 1:57 am in The Jamestown Sun
Don’t be misled it’s not just the area surrounding North Dakota’s Oil Patch that is experiencing growth.
This according to a report released last week by the state tax commissioner’s office. The report examined taxable sales and purchases from 2010 to 2011 throughout North Dakota.
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Taxable sales have increased because the cost of goods and services have increased. Gas is more expensive, food is more expensive, farm related input costs have increased, etc.
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@ terrynelson – Perhaps you are the one doing the misleading. The article has a quote from Jennifer Fiest regarding your complaint (perhaps you missed it?):
“[The increase in taxable revenue] proves our economy is stronger over here in the eastern part of the state, too,” Fiest said. “We’re not Fargo or Bismarck or Grand Forks and we’re not sitting on oil, but these increases show real strength for somewhere like here.”
The purpose of this story is not to compare small towns to larger ones, but rather to show the increase in taxable revenue throughout the state – in particular communities in the Jamestown Sun’s readership area.
@ JamestownResident – It is unclear to me where you obtain your “increase in the cost of goods and services”. A simple internet search will show that the average cost of gas for 2012 is comparable to the prices in 2011 (see, for example, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for historical average gas prices). You can also look at the average cost of milk, ground beef, and bread at this site. The average price of these products show a modest increase, well below the increase in taxable revenue between 2011 and 2012. Also, the cost of farm inputs has not increased considerably either. As an example, take a look at ERS/USDA data regarding average fertilizer costs. The cost for fertilizer has increased around 5-8% from 2011 to 2012, well below the 16% increase in taxable revenue Jamestown has experienced.
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Andrew,
This report compares 2010 and 2011, not 2011 and 2012.
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Jamestown Resident,
My mistake, thank you for seeing my error. My point was that inflation did not increase the cost of goods/services 16% over the course of a year.
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terry,
I disagree with you on this one. In 2011, Jamestown’s taxable sales were at $249M, and Fargo’s were at $2.4B. Taking into account the nearly 10 times larger population of Fargo compared to Jamestown, I would not consider Jamestown’s taxable sales a “joke” in comparison to Fargo. However, the selection of products in the Jamestown market is clearly more limited than the Fargo market because of the large population difference, and thus it is difficult to compare them (in my opinion). As far as the oil patch, there are obviously other dynamics that communities such as Jamestown don’t have to deal with or can take advantage from. Therefore, in my opinion, I don’t think it is reasonable to compare and oil patch economy such as Williston to Jamestown either.
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Hmm, terrynelson seems to be from Fargo based on profile. I wonder if it is the same posters (previously in different names) that have done nothing but glorify Fargo and trash Jamestown for anything. Interesting.
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Certainly is the same guy. Lets see…..John Smith?…Bob Johnson?…Mike Wilson?……….. oh ya…..Fred Brown.
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Same guy. I just disregard his comments. Same crap,different day.
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Yeah I’m a positive guy and obviously you don’t like that Mr. Negative. Carry on.
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