Williston Doubles Taxable Sales -- Williams County Surpasses Cass County -- State Officials Surprised By Size of Increase in Taxable Sales -- First Quarter 2011 -- North Dakota: 34 Percent Increase -- Bakken, North Dakota, USA

Some of what follows: I have to thank "anonymous" for giving me a "head's up" on this story yesterday, about Williams County surpassing Cass County -- see near end of posting.

Despite one of the worse winters on record, if not the worst.

Link here.

North Dakota Tax Commissioner Cory Fong says taxable sales and purchases the first three months of the year totaled $3.5 billion, an increase of nearly 34 percent over the year.

Fong says officials expected the state's economy to remain strong but were still surprised by the level of the increase.

Full report here (PDF file).

I was surprised how short the article was in the Bismarck Tribune -- I guess the state considers the oil patch and all its revenue "ho-hum."

The Great Plains Examiner, however, had a huge story on the increase in taxable sales to include this nugget which the Bismarck Tribune cut:

The five cities that showed the most growth in taxable sales were in the state’s oil patch. Tioga was up 159.2 percent; Williston was up 106.8 percent; Stanley was up 106.4 percent; New Town was up 65.5 percent; and Crosby was up 59.3 percent.

The Examiner noted:

“Even with the ongoing severe weather-related conditions during the first quarter, coupled with rising prices at the pump, North Dakota’s consumer confidence in our economy remained strong,” Fong noted.

And the Examiner even included a link to the full report (as linked above):

The complete North Dakota Sales and Use Tax Statistical Report for First Quarter 2011 is available on the Tax Department’s web site at www.nd.gov/tax/.

Although Williston was still second to Fargo in taxable sales, Williams County (Williston) beat out Cass County (Fargo) in taxable sales and purchases. Yep, the Williston Herald confirms this.

Statistics from the State Tax Department show Williams County surpassing Cass County in the first quarter of 2011 in taxable sales and purchases.

Williams County recorded more than $550.6 million of taxable sales and purchases in the first quarter.

This outpaced the more than $543.6 million recorded in Cass County.

"That's just amazing, just amazing. Just look around, it's not so much the retail dollars as it is the oil and construction going on around here," Williams County Commission Chairman Dan Kalil said. On the city level, Williston remained number two behind Fargo. Williston recorded more than $447 million during the first quarter, which was second to Fargo's $480.9 million. Williams County Auditor Beth Innis said she was surprised by the news. Innis added that despite the high level of oil activity, she never thought Williams County would pass Cass County.