COLORADO WORKS BETTER™ Taxpayer Shareholder Portal Follow

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Works Better Corporation, a nonpartisan public benefit corporation, builds this site.

Independent public-records project, separate from the State of Colorado and from every party and campaign.

Every number carries one of four labels (FACT, CALC, SAMPLE or PENDING) and a source you can open.
Colorado Works Better

Weekly Briefs

One short report a week on what changed in the public record, and where each figure came from. Every brief stays up, at the address it was published at.

From our posts

Saw “Link in bio” on one of our posts? Find it here, newest first, and tap through to its page.

  1. Colorado bachelor’s graduates who borrowed finish with $24,700 in debt on average.Education ·
  2. Denver’s 2026 budget comes to about $7,307 per resident, not counting what the city pays itself.The Budget (Denver) ·
  3. Medicaid claims have not appeared in Colorado's public payment ledger since March 2017.Budget vs. Paid ·
  4. Colorado business confidence has trended down 12.9 points per decade since 2012.Confidence ·
  5. 244,622 Colorado students were chronically absent in the 2024-25 school year.Do students still show up? ·
  6. Colorado ranked 12th of 50 states for employment growth in 2022. By 2025 it ranked 43rd.Confidence ·
  7. On CDOT's Floyd Hill dashboard, paid plus remaining is $60.01M more than the contract value.I-70 Floyd Hill Improvement Project ·
  8. Of every $100 in Colorado’s state budget, $41.45 goes to health care.Overview ·
Earlier posts (33)
  1. Colorado’s economy grew 1.9% in 2025, 27th of 50. Delaware’s grew fastest.Compare States and Cities ·
  2. Rent takes 31.2% of renters’ income in Colorado. In Wyoming, 26.5%.Compare States and Cities ·
  3. 72% of Colorado business leaders say the risks to their outlook are negative.Confidence ·
  4. Among Colorado and its seven neighbors, Colorado collects the least sales tax per person.My Board ·
  5. One example car registration in Denver comes to $191.98: one tax and fourteen fees.What you pay to register a car in Colorado ·
  6. Colorado's two official crime counts disagree: 3,826 robberies in 2024, or 6,198?How many robberies were reported in Colorado in 2024? ·
  7. Colorado’s unemployment rate is 4.1%, 31st of 50. South Dakota’s is the lowest.Compare States and Cities ·
  8. Colorado ranks 41st of 47 in business confidence. Kansas ranks 20th.Compare States and Cities ·
  9. Among Colorado and its seven neighbors, Colorado’s job growth ranks seventh. Only Kansas grew more slowly.My Board ·
  10. Rent takes 31.2% of renters’ income in Colorado, 38th of 50. North Dakota’s share is the lowest.Compare States and Cities ·
  11. 64.4% of finished Colorado highway contracts ended above the amount CDOT awarded them at (CALC).Findings ·
  12. A year of infant care in a Colorado center costs $20,978. A year of CU Boulder tuition costs $13,566.Annual price of infant care, center, Colorado (Child Care Aware of America) ·
  13. New here? WorksBetter shows where Colorado's tax dollars go.Overview ·
  14. For 6 of the last 7 quarters, Colorado business leaders rated Colorado’s economy below the nation’s.Confidence ·
  15. $41.6 million for a state HR system. Legislative staff: “no new systems were implemented with the funding.”HRWorks ·
  16. Colorado collects $135 per person in licenses and fees. Oklahoma collects $228.Compare States and Cities ·
  17. A home in Colorado costs more years of income than in any neighbor state.My Board ·
  18. Colorado’s eighth graders rank 14th in math. Massachusetts ranks 1st.Compare States and Cities ·
  19. Colorado’s eighth graders score 278 in math. New Mexico’s eighth graders score 256.Compare States and Cities ·
  20. 64.4% of finished Colorado highway contracts ended above their award amount.Findings ·
  21. Colorado’s eighth graders read best of Colorado and its seven neighbors.My Board ·
  22. Count all eight topics the same, and Colorado ranks 47th of 50 on the Taxpayer Shareholder Index™.The 50 States ·
  23. An average Xcel home electric bill rose roughly 30% from March 2021 to March 2026.Five Twenties ·
  24. An example Colorado household pays the state about $9.40 a day in taxes and road fees.Follow Your Dollar ·
  25. Colorado business confidence, the whole story in one minute: the flip, the streak, the rankings and the reasons.Confidence ·
  26. One Colorado ZIP code tops the Census scale: a typical home worth $2 million or more.How expensive can a Colorado ZIP code get? ·
  27. Half of every $100 a Colorado family earns is gone before the groceries.Five Twenties ·
  28. What did you pay to renew your car registration? A typical Colorado renewal is $220.98 if you decline nothing (CALC). See every line:Why is my car registration over $200? ·
  29. Does every Colorado bill cost the state money? No.Bills and Laws ·
  30. Colorado had the highest vehicle theft rate of any state in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In 2025 it ranked 6th of 46 (CALC).Results ·
  31. Aurora's 2026 adopted budget is $1.34 billion across all funds (FACT). That is about $3,332 per resident (CALC).Overview (Aurora) ·
  32. How to read a city budget next to the State's.Overview (Denver) ·
  33. A correction.The corrections log ·
Latest · Week of Oct 29, 2026

Colorado's marijuana money, year by year

Read Follow
  • In the Weeds: Colorado's marijuana money, year by year, with six findings
  • The minimum wage beside Denver prices, a month's pay and rent at the low end
  • The state highway money paid to Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Lakewood

Follow the briefs with an Atom feed

  • Week of Oct 22, 2026

    Central 70, every dollar counted once

    Central 70: every layer of money behind the project, with each dollar counted once

    What each county was paid this year from the severance tax and federal mineral lease money

    The I-270 rebuild, school funding per pupil, and three corrections

  • Week of Oct 15, 2026

    The Budget, and new pages to explore

    The Budget on one page: the state's reserve, the September TABOR refund forecast, where the money goes and what the state owes

    Pages to explore on business confidence, living costs, schools, state payments, fees, car registration and three big projects

    Highway money paid to each county, and what CDOT paid its vendors in September

  • Week of Oct 8, 2026

    Five Colorado cities, each with its own budget pages

    Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Lakewood now each have their own budget pages

    Four more CDOT projects now have pacing pages, from CDOT dashboards

    CDOT payments for August 2026, revised crime counts, and four new entries in the corrections log

  • Week of Oct 1, 2026

    Every project on one page, and what is near you

    One Projects page now lists 1,479 Colorado projects, and each one has a page of its own

    Near You shows what the state is paying for in your county, from a ZIP code or a county

    Colorado's unemployment rate now runs to August 2026, and the Long Bill's total now covers eleven years

  • Week of Sep 24, 2026

    You can now follow a bill or a project

    Follow any bill on Before It's Law, or any project, and read each bill's own plain-language summary

    Type your ZIP code and this brief narrows to your county and its legislative districts

    Bill pages can be printed or shared as a QR code, and the project map now zooms

  • Week of Sep 17, 2026

    Before It's Law is live, and 122 bills have changed since August

    Before It's Law opened to readers on 16 September: every bill and every recorded vote, per bill

    Of the 656 bills read again this week, 122 changed. The other 6,654 were not re-read

  • Week of Sep 10, 2026

    The country's jobs figure reached August

    The national unemployment rate now runs to August

    The legislature recorded no votes in the week to 10 September

    Three corrections in two days, and all three were fixes that had stopped at one page

  • Week of Sep 3, 2026

    Half of Colorado’s property tax goes to school districts

    Every property tax dollar levied in Colorado, split five ways

    A month of the state prison record left its window, and this site no longer carries it

    House prices were restated, and Colorado’s rise since 2019 is the smaller one

  • Week of Aug 27, 2026

    Colorado’s pension gap moved two ways at once

    A new pension valuation moved two measures of one gap in opposite directions

    What a household pays — rent, child care, tuition, the minimum wage — is now published

    The legislature recorded no votes in the week this brief covers

  • Week of Aug 20, 2026

    Colorado prices every bill, and most prices never change

    The state estimates what a bill will cost before it votes on it

    Most of those estimates never change

    The legislature cut the reserve it requires itself to hold

  • Week of Aug 13, 2026

    Colorado counts its crimes twice, and gets two answers

    Two state agencies count the same crimes and report different totals

    The tax Colorado calls flat changed rate in each of the last two years

    No public record shows what a county paid in