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La Veta · FY2021 municipal finance benchmarks

Huerfano County · Southern Colorado · statutory town · Pop. 859 (2025 estimate); FY2021 per-resident figures use 864 · Census finance data FY2016, FY2021

Latest Census Bureau finance data for La Veta: 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

La Veta collected $1,913 per resident (including city-run utilities), 23% below the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year, 57% above its peers. Tax revenue per resident sits 15% above its peers, but 20% below the state 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)

$1,913
57% above peers
Includes city-owned utilities
Peer median
$1,222
CO median · 227 with a published figure
$2,476
Position
Higher than 32% of the 227 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+24.4%/yr
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)

$858
15% above peers
Peer median
$744
CO median · 201 with a published figure
$1,072
Position
Higher than 35% of the 201 reporting
5-year changenominal dollars
+30.2%/yr

How this number was calculated

Revenue per resident · $1,913
Reported by the city to the Census Bureau

  1. 1Metric

    $1,913 Total revenue divided by population

    = Total revenue ÷ population

    Full definition: Revenue per resident

  2. 2Inputs

    Total revenue $1.7M ÷ population 864 (2021 estimate)

  3. 3Census line items

    • A01 Airport charges
    • A80 Sewer charges
    • A91 Water utility charges
    • C89 State aid
    • T01 Property tax
    • T09 General sales tax
    • T15 Selective sales taxes (lodging, utilities, etc.)
    • T19 Selective sales taxes (lodging, utilities, etc.)
    • T20 Licenses & permits
    • T28 Licenses & permits
    • T99 Other taxes
    • U20 Interest earnings
    • U40 Rents
    • U99 Miscellaneous

  4. 4Source file

What the numbers mean

  • La Veta runs city-owned utilities, which add 24.7% 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 864 residents, small changes in La Veta's budget move per-resident figures a lot. Compare several years, not one.

Where the money comes from and where it goes

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

On the revenue side, the biggest difference from peers is Sales tax: $699 per resident, 89% above the peer median.

Money in

Revenue

$1,913
per resident57% above peers
Money in: La Veta revenue per resident by category, FY2021, against the peer median. Open a category for its lines and Census item codes.
CategoryPer residentvs peers
$69989% abovepeers $370
$47228% abovepeers $369
$3034.4×peers $68
$23185% abovepeers $125
$10923% belowpeers $141
$5066% belowpeers $148
$4973% belowpeers $178
Peer median of 5 peers · Colorado median of 227 reporting

Money out

Spending

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

Peer median of 5 peers · Colorado median of 220 reporting

La Veta 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
La Veta compared with its peer municipalities, FY2021, per resident
MunicipalityRevenueExpendituresTax revenueSales taxDebt
La VetaUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 24.7% 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.$1,913$858$699Not reported for this year
WilliamsburgUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 51.0% 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.$723$523$876
CalhanUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 22.1% 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.$1,748$1,398$840$686$117
Silver Cliff$1,037$998$744$541$213
GilcrestUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 12.0% 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.$1,696$1,068$620$199$632
RockvaleUtilities: City-owned utilities (water, electric, gas, transit) brought in 73.8% 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.$1,222$926Not reported for this year$360
Peer median$1,222Benchmark unavailable$744$541Not reported for this year

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

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
FY2016 $641 to FY2021 $1,913.$0$1.2K$2.5K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $590Peer median FY2021: $1,222Colorado median FY2016: $1,746 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $2,476 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $641FY2021: $1,913

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
Revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$641$590$1,746 (224 reporting)
FY2021$1,913$1,222$2,476 (227 reporting)
Expenditures per resident
FY2016 $810. 1 year withheld.$0$1.1K$2.2K’16’21Peer median FY2016: $466Colorado median FY2016: $1,749 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $2,208 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $810FY2021: withheld — Expenditures per resident is 5.9x the peer median

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

  • FY2021 withheld: Expenditures per resident is 5.9x the peer median
Show data table
Expenditures per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$810$466$1,749 (196 reporting)
FY2021Withheld (Expenditures per resident is 5.9x the peer median)Benchmark unavailable$2,208 (220 reporting)
Tax revenue per resident
FY2016 $229 to FY2021 $858.$0$536$1.1K’16’21Peer median FY2021: $744Colorado median FY2016: $705 (all 224 municipalities reporting)Colorado median FY2021: $1,072 (all 227 municipalities reporting)FY2016: $229FY2021: $858

Fiscal year · nominal dollars, not adjusted for inflation

Show data table
Tax revenue per resident by fiscal year
YearThis cityPeer medianColorado median
FY2016$229Benchmark unavailable$705 (193 reporting)
FY2021$858$744$1,072 (201 reporting)

Questions about La Veta’s finances

How much revenue does La Veta collect per resident?
La Veta collected $1,913 per resident in FY2021, 23% below the median of the 227 Colorado municipalities reporting that year. See the figure
Which cities is La Veta compared with?
La Veta is compared with Williamsburg, Calhan, Silver Cliff, Gilcrest and Rockvale: 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)
+2.1%/yr
2021 estimate
Median household income
$46K
2021 estimate
Poverty rate
6.8%
2021 estimate
Median home value
$275K
2021 estimate
Housing vacancy rate
35.5%
2021 estimate

Explore further

Also in Southern Colorado

Revenue per resident, latest published year.

Sources

Dataset: La Veta, 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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