Wheat Ridge and Arvada are two Front Range municipalities who collect a sales tax on grocery food, while many of their neighbors do not impose such taxes.
Lakewood is somewhat unique, as it once collected sales tax revenue from grocery food but rescinded the tax 17 years ago.
Mountain View, Golden, Edgewater, Littleton and Denver are among nearby municipalities that do not collect a grocery food sales tax. However, most charge sales tax on other food-related categories such as prepared food from restaurants, catering and some prepared meals in grocery stores.
Colorado enacted its sales tax in 1935. Initially, the state took a broad approach, but rules regarding food taxation changed over time.
Colorado now exempts food for home consumption (mostly groceries) from its state sales tax. However, prepared food (restaurant meals), along with items like candy and soft drinks, remains taxable.
Home-rule cities — like Wheat Ridge, Lakewood and Arvada — can set their own rules and choose whether to tax groceries, along with other items the state exempts.
Tax began one year after incorporation
Wheat Ridge spokeswoman Amanda Harrison said money collected from the city’s overall sales tax of 3.5% goes to the city general fund.
“We have always collected sales tax on groceries,” Harrison told the Gazette. The city incorporated in 1969. “We’ve just never opted out.”
Such a change would require city council approval, but “It’s never been discussed,” Harrison noted.
A state revenue department online spreadsheet states Wheat Ridge started charging a 2% sales tax in 1970 and it reached its current level in 2017.
The overall 8% sales tax rate in Wheat Ridge is composed of Colorado (2.90%); Jefferson County (0.50%); Wheat Ridge (3.50%); Regional Transportation District (1.00%); and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (0.10%).
Overall, Wheat Ridge collected $27 million in sales tax revenue in 2025, Harrison noted. That includes the city’s grocery food tax, but Harrison said the city does not break the money into separate categories.
Harrison also noted it was helpful to have the tax during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since people could not eat out and were buying more groceries, it helped the city avoid layoffs during the pandemic, she added.
Since the city has not received any citizen comments against the sales tax on grocery food, “They apparently don’t feel it’s too burdensome,” Harrison said.
She also noted if city voters approve a Nov. 3 general election ballot question to raise the overall city sales tax by 1%, it would apply to grocery food and other categories.
Grocery tax repealed in Lakewood
Lakewood has not had a grocery food sales tax since 2009, as citizens voted to repeal the tax in 2008; it took effect Jan. 1, 2009. Lakewood started charging a 2% sales tax in 1970, a year after incorporation.
“It was mostly due to concerns about senior citizens and low-income families,” Lakewood Chief Financial Officer Holly Bjorklund said in an interview with the Gazette. “It’s kind of become our norm for sales tax revenue.”
The sales tax on food reached 3% in 2006, where it remains now. But it now only applies to categories like restaurants and prepared foods.
While Bjorklund said the city doesn’t have any records from 2009 and the following years to compare revenue changes, other city tax revenue areas have “grown a lot” since then. In 2025, Lakewood collected nearly $109 million in overall sales tax revenue.
Lakewood citizens have not asked why the city doesn’t have a grocery food sales tax.
“We’ve had some people say they appreciate the fact we don’t tax groceries,” Bjorklund added.
Likewise, there have not been any proposals to reinstate the tax, she noted.
However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the city didn’t have the revenue a grocery sales tax provides as Wheat Ridge and other municipalities did, Bjorklund said.
But the city managed to avoid any employee layoffs or unpaid furloughs, she noted, although recreation department seasonal workers were affected due to building closures.
Grocery tax key source of revenue for Arvada
Bryan Archer, Arvada’s chief financial officer, said the city collects a sales tax on all food, including groceries.
According to a Colorado Department of Revenue website, Arvada — incorporated in 1904 — instituted a 1% sales tax on Jan. 1, 1969. It gradually increased over the years until it reached its current rate of 3.46% on Jan. 1, 2006.
“We’ve had this for a very long time,” Archer stated.
Most of Arvada’s overall sales tax money goes to the general fund. Two tax increments (.46%) are directed to the police department.
The tax on grocery food is one of Arvada’s main contributors to its overall sales tax revenue at 18% to 24% annually, Archer added.
“We don’t have shopping malls or big box stores, so a lot of our sales tax revenue comes from food sales,” he explained. “We have seven King Soopers, some Safeway’s,” along with convenience stores and other food-related businesses.
Archer claimed a lot of people drive to Arvada to grocery shop.
The city hasn’t had many comments about the grocery food tax, he added.
Perhaps part of the reason is Arvada offers a sales tax rebate program for low-income families that pays $100 plus $65 for every other person in the family.
The program runs yearly from May through August. Partial residency rebates are offered on a pro-rated basis. Qualified residents must fill out an application each year and provide proof of income. The program will reopen on May 1, 2027.
Over 900 rebates were issued in the last two years and Archer anticipated around 960 by the end of this year. Around 2% of Arvada’s approximate 50,000 households have taken part in the program, he added.
Archer has worked for the city for 30 years and recalls doing some research on exchanging the sales tax on food for a property tax mill levy. But he said the city council at the time was not interested in pursuing it.
