Assuming you do well on them, honors classes and honors colleges absolutely help! It shows you take a proactive approach to challenging yourself and take advantages of opportunities offered at your school.
Additionally, if you have an actual honors college (or organized honors program), you're usually required to do some sort of research, paper, study abroad, etc...something you can feel good about, put on AADSAS, and bring up in your interview.
Especially coming from a big, public university, honors programs are a way to show that you weren't just "one of the crowd"