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Crestone · FY2021 municipal finance benchmarks

Saguache County · San Luis Valley · statutory town · Pop. 166 (2025 estimate); FY2021 per-resident figures use 139 · Census finance data FY2016, FY2021

Latest Census Bureau finance data for Crestone: FY2021. Retrieved Oct 2026. Newer years are added when the Census Bureau publishes them. Why the lag?

City website (opens in a new tab)

Compare

FY2021 in brief

Crestone collected $5,885 per resident (including city-run utilities), 2.4× the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year. Tax revenue per resident sits 4.2× the state median. Debt per resident runs 86% below peers.

Regional hub: sales tax per resident is 4.8× the Colorado median.

Generated from the figures below. Every number links to its Census source.

Compared with

Nearest on population, household income and region

FY2021 headline figures

Revenue per resident (definition)

$5,885
2.4× CO median
Includes city-owned utilities
Peer median
Benchmark unavailable
CO median · 227 with a published figure
$2,476
Position
Higher than 89% of the 227 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
Not enough history for a 5-year change
How Colorado compares on revenue per resident

Expenditures per resident (definition)

Includes city-owned utilities
Peer median
Benchmark unavailable
CO median · 220 with a published figure
$2,208
Position
Not reported for this year
5-year changenominal dollars
Withheld with this year's value

Tax revenue per resident (definition)

$4,547
4.2× CO median
Peer median
Benchmark unavailable
CO median · 201 with a published figure
$1,072
Position
Higher than 95% of the 201 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
Not enough history for a 5-year change

Debt per resident (definition)

$403
86% below peers
Peer median
$2,871
CO median · 199 with a published figure
$1,411
Position
Higher than 17% of the 199 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+7.5%/yr
How Colorado compares on debt per resident

How this number was calculated

Revenue per resident · $5,885
Reported by the city to the Census Bureau

  1. 1Metric

    $5,885 Total revenue divided by population

    = Total revenue ÷ population

    Full definition: Revenue per resident

  2. 2Inputs

    Total revenue $818K ÷ population 139 (2021 estimate)

  3. 3Census line items

    • A89 General government (other) charges
    • A91 Water utility charges
    • C89 State aid
    • T01 Property tax
    • T09 General sales tax
    • T29 Licenses & permits
    • T99 Other taxes
    • U20 Interest earnings
    • U99 Miscellaneous

  4. 4Source file

What the numbers mean

  • Crestone runs city-owned utilities, which add 10.6% of its revenue. Cities that don't run utilities will look lower on revenue and spending per resident for that reason alone. What counts as utility revenue
  • With about 139 residents, small changes in Crestone's budget move per-resident figures a lot. Compare several years, not one.
  • Crestone relies on sales tax more than most Colorado municipalities. Tourism and regional retail can raise sales tax per resident because non-residents pay it.
  • Too few comparable municipalities reported this year to form a peer group, so comparisons use the Colorado median.

Where the money comes from and where it goes

Per resident, FY2021. Bars show Crestone; the gold tick is the peer median. How categories work

Regional hub: sales tax per resident is 4.8× the Colorado median.

Sales tax per resident is high, which usually means many non-residents shop, stay or work here. Per-resident figures divide citywide totals by residents only, so they overstate what residents themselves pay and use.

Money in

Revenue

$5,885
per resident
Money in: Crestone revenue per resident by category, FY2021, against the peer median. Open a category for its lines and Census item codes.
CategoryPer residentvs peers
Peer median unavailable$4,173No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$626No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$460No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$266No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$130No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$122No peer comparison
Peer median unavailable$108No peer comparison
Peer median of 2 peers · Colorado median of 227 reporting

Money out

Spending

Categories are withheld with the total until it is verified against Crestone’s audited financial report.

Peer median of 1 peers · Colorado median of 220 reporting

Crestone and its peers

The five Colorado municipalities nearest on population, median household income and region. Budget size isn’t a matching factor, so peers aren’t chosen on the figures being compared. Per resident, FY2021. How peers are chosen

Open in Compare
Crestone compared with its peer municipalities, FY2021, per resident
MunicipalityRevenueExpendituresTax revenueSales taxDebt
CrestoneUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 10.6% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.Regional hub: Sales tax per resident is 4.8× the Colorado median.$5,885$4,547$4,173$403
Moffat$3,467Not reported for this yearNot reported for this yearNot reported for this year
RomeoUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 21.9% of total revenue in FY2021. Revenue and spending per resident include them, so cities that run their own utilities read higher than cities that don't.$1,945Not reported for this year$235
Peer medianBenchmark unavailableBenchmark unavailableBenchmark unavailableBenchmark unavailable$2,871

Utilities marks a municipality whose revenue and spending include city-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit), which raises its per-resident totals.

Regional hub marks a municipality whose sales tax per resident is at least 1.5× the Colorado median: a shopping or visitor hub where people who live elsewhere pay much of the sales tax.

Trends

Every available fiscal year. Lines break where a year is missing or withheld; nothing is interpolated.

  • This city
  • Peer median
  • Withheld (shown on the axis, no value)
  • Colorado median (Census of Governments years only)
Revenue per resident
FY2021 $5,885. 1 year withheld.$0$2.9K$5.9K’16’21Colorado median FY2016: $1,746 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $2,476 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2021: $5,885FY2016: withheld — Revenue per resident is 7.0x the peer median

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

  • FY2016 withheld: Revenue per resident is 7.0x the peer median
Show data table
Revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016Withheld (Revenue per resident is 7.0x the peer median)Benchmark unavailable$1,746 (224 reporting)
FY2021$5,885Benchmark unavailable$2,476 (227 reporting)
Tax revenue per resident
FY2021 $4,547. 1 year withheld.$0$2.3K$4.5K’16’21Colorado median FY2016: $705 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $1,072 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2021: $4,547FY2016: withheld — Tax revenue per resident is 15.9x the peer median

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

  • FY2016 withheld: Tax revenue per resident is 15.9x the peer median
Show data table
Tax revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016Withheld (Tax revenue per resident is 15.9x the peer median)Benchmark unavailable$705 (193 reporting)
FY2021$4,547Benchmark unavailable$1,072 (201 reporting)
Debt per resident
FY2016 $280 to FY2021 $403.$0$1.4K$2.9K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $187Peer median FY2021: $2,871Colorado median FY2016: $1,072 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $1,411 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $280FY2021: $403

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

Peer group changed in FY2021. Peers are matched each year, so the peer median can step when the group changes.

Show data table
Debt per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$280$187$1,072 (220 reporting)
FY2021$403$2,871$1,411 (199 reporting)

Questions about Crestone’s finances

How much revenue does Crestone collect per resident?
Crestone collected $5,885 per resident in FY2021, 2.4× the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year. See the figure
How much debt does Crestone have per resident?
Crestone carried $403 of debt per resident in FY2021, 86% below its peers' median. See the figure
Which cities is Crestone compared with?
Crestone is compared with Moffat and Romeo: the Colorado municipalities nearest to it on population, median household income and region. Budget size isn't used, so peers aren't chosen on the figures being compared. See the peer table
Where do these numbers come from?
From the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, as each government reported its own fiscal year, divided by Census population estimates. Figures that fail quality checks are withheld rather than shown. Sources and methodology

Community context

American Community Survey 5-year estimates and Census population estimates. Where the selected year isn’t available, the nearest earlier year is shown and labeled.

Population growth (5-yr)
+1.0%/yr
2021 estimate
Median household income
$8.8K
2021 estimate
Poverty rate
61.3%
2021 estimate
Median home value
$157.6K
2021 estimate
Housing vacancy rate
55.9%
2021 estimate

Explore further

Also in San Luis Valley

Revenue per resident, latest published year.

Sources

Dataset: Crestone, CO municipal finance benchmarks

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (opens in a new tab). Please credit “Source: Orivian Municipal Index, orivian.ai/benchmarks”. See the data use terms.

Notes: dollars are nominal (not inflation-adjusted). Colorado medians cover the municipalities reporting that year. Peers: nearest on population, income and region. Definitions: orivian.ai/benchmarks/methodology.Retrieved October 12, 2026 from orivian.ai/benchmarks.

Every figure on this page is read from the published index; nothing is recalculated for display. Read the methodology

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