The fine print
One city in three counties, a sales tax that depends on the county, a checkbook on a third basis, and what the Aurora pages do not cover yet, said plainly.
Read before you compare
FACTOne city, three counties
| County part | Residents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Arapahoe | 341,313 | 84.7% |
| Adams | 57,648 | 14.3% |
| Douglas | 4,169 | 1.0% |
| Total | 403,130 | 100.0% |
Aurora is a home-rule city spanning parts of three counties, and every single-county join breaks. An Aurora address resolves to one of three counties. About one resident in seven is not in Arapahoe County. The federal gazetteer’s point for Aurora sits in Adams County, which leads third-party summaries to call Adams the primary county. The Census arithmetic above is what this site trusts instead.
The sales tax depends on the county
| County part | Combined rate |
|---|---|
| Arapahoe | 8.00% |
| Adams | 8.50% |
| Douglas | 8.75% |
Aurora’s own general sales and use tax is 3.75% in all three counties — the city is home-rule and collects that portion itself. The combined rate adds the state’s 2.90% and county and special-district portions that differ by county, as the budget book’s own by-county table prints it (2025 rates). No single “Aurora sales tax” figure exists, so none is published here.
The checkbook is a different basis
The city runs a vendor-payment transparency application whose own month list runs January 2022 through March 2026 (read 27 August 2026). It publishes payments, which are neither appropriations nor expenses — a third basis. It offers no bulk export and no API, only postback-driven pages. Nothing from it is published on this site yet. If payment figures ever appear here, they will carry that basis at every occurrence — the way the budget figures on these pages are labeled 2026 Adopted.
What these pages do not cover yet
- The Aurora City Council. These pages do not cover council votes or ordinances yet. The budget figures on Aurora’s pages come from the city’s own 2026 Adopted budget book.