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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.
Weekly Brief · 29 October 2026

Colorado's marijuana money, year by year

Where each marijuana tax dollar went since 2014, the state's wage floor beside prices and rent, and the highway money paid to five cities.

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Weekly Brief, 29 October 2026

Point a phone camera at this code to open the brief.

Narrows this brief to your county's projects. It runs in your browser: the ZIP is never stored or sent, and we count only which kind of answer came back. The county it finds is saved on this device until you tap Forget.

Colorado's marijuana money, year by year

Where did Colorado's marijuana tax money go? In the Weeds follows it from the first month of retail sales in 2014 to the latest month reported.

Pick a year, and four cards show how that year compares with the year before. One card shows where each marijuana dollar went. One sets the fund's final plan beside what the state's payment ledger shows paid. One shows what the plan was for, and one shows how much the next session of the legislature changed it.

The page also lists six findings from the record. For example, the payment ledger shows less paid than the final plan in every year the page reads. That gap is not money left unpaid, because the ledger lists only part of state spending. The page says how much.

Each figure names its source: the Department of Revenue's monthly tax reports, the Joint Budget Committee's budget reports, or the payment ledger. A figure that no publisher prints is left blank.

The wage floor beside prices and rent

Has the minimum wage kept up with prices? Cost of Living sets the state's wage floor beside Denver prices.

Colorado's minimum wage is $15.16 an hour in 2026. Since 2019 it rose 36.6%. The page draws Denver's price index on the same chart. It does not subtract one from the other, because a yearly wage and a monthly price index cover different windows.

A full-time job at the minimum wage pays about $2,628 a month. The page sets that beside rent at the low end of the market, which was $1,241 a month in 2024 from the Census Bureau.

State highway money paid to five cities

How much does the state pay your city for its roads? Each city page shows it: Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Lakewood.

The money comes from the state's Highway Users Tax Fund, which holds its fuel taxes and vehicle fees. The State Treasurer pays each city a share every month. Each page shows the city's total for the last two state fiscal years. The city's money is never added to the state's figures or to a county's.

More to explore

How does Colorado compare with the other 49 states? How Colorado Ranks ranks every state the same way on eight topics from federal figures. You can add the states you want beside Colorado.

How much did each department spend, against its budget? Budget and Payments opens on a list of departments. Pick one to see its budget beside what the payment ledger shows paid, month by month.

Each city has its own week in this brief

See this week for one city: Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, or Lakewood.

The city view shows only what changed in that city's records, and the State items for the counties the city is in. The two are not added together.

Corrections

The corrections log lists each mistake we find on this site and what we did about it. It has no new entries for Colorado this week.

The legislature is not in session

The General Assembly is between sessions. The next session starts on 11 January 2027.

The General Assembly recorded no votes between 23 October 2026 and 29 October 2026. Its most recent recorded vote was on 13 May 2026.

Every recorded vote since 2016 is at Bills and Laws.

Where these figures come from

Every figure above is one of two kinds, and this is which. FACT means a publisher printed the figure and we read it there. CALC means we worked it out from figures a publisher printed, and the arithmetic is on the methodology page. Nothing here is our own estimate.

  • FACT Minimum wage, Colorado · 2026 · Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, Adopted PAY CALC Orders, 7 CCR 1103-14 — 2024, 2025, 2026 (plus the 2026 temporary order) Back to the sentence
  • CALC Minimum wage, Colorado — change since 2019 · 2019 to 2026 · Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, Adopted PAY CALC Orders, 7 CCR 1103-14 — 2024, 2025, 2026 (plus the 2026 temporary order) Back to the sentence
  • CALC Monthly pay at the minimum wage, Colorado, full time · 2026 · Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, Adopted PAY CALC Orders, 7 CCR 1103-14 — 2024, 2025, 2026 (plus the 2026 temporary order) Back to the sentence
  • FACT Lower-quartile contract rent, Colorado · 2024 · U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 1-year, table B25057 — lower contract rent quartile, Colorado (data.census.gov table API) Back to the sentence