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Taxes are talking point of ad blasting Beauprez

Rocky Mountain News

Published October 11, 2006 at midnight

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Ad: "Sales Tax"

Medium: Television

Sponsor: Bill Ritter for Governor

Summary: The ad says that Bob Beauprez wants to hike the state sales tax and introduce a 23 percent national sales tax that would be applied to the sale of homes, food and medicine. The ad goes on to accuse Beauprez of supported unlimited increases in college tuition at state colleges.

What's true: Beauprez has proposed abolishing the state gasoline tax and replacing it with a 0.77-cent increase in the sales tax. He also was a co-sponsor of a proposal in Congress to replace the income tax with a 23 percent national sales tax. Beauprez also called for giving state colleges greater freedom to hike tuition rates.

What's false: Beauprez says his tax proposals are "revenue neutral," meaning they wouldn't hike tax revenues but replace one type of tax with another.

What's squishy: Critics of the proposal to abolish the state gas tax say Beauprez's idea would penalize seniors and others who don't drive. Beauprez, however, says abolishing the gas tax would help stabilize state transportation revenues. Instituting a national sales tax in lieu of the income tax also has been criticized because, opponents say, it would shift the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle class.

Ritter's 'bad judgment' cited in immigrant ad

Ad: "Case File"

Medium: Television

Sponsor: Beauprez for Governor

Summary: The ad says former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter's "bad judgment" allowed immigrant felons to avoid deportation through plea bargains. It cites the case of an "illegal alien" identified as Carlos Estrada Medina (alias Walter Noel Ramo), who was arrested for felony heroin distribution but was allowed to plea-bargain to trespassing on agricultural land. The narrator says Medina was given probation only to be arrested again for the sexual abuse of a minor in California.

What's true: Ritter's office did allow about 130 defendants to plead guilty to the lesser felony of trespassing on agricultural land with intent to commit a felony. Some of the defendants were illegal immigrants, but the immigration status of all 130 has not been determined.

A defendant identified only as Walter Noel Ramo was arrested for two felony counts of possessing heroin and intent to distribute the drug in Denver in 2001 after police found heroin on the floorboard of another man's Jeep, according to court records. Ramo had just exited the Jeep, and the motorist told police Ramo sold him the drug.

Ramo, identified as an illegal immigrant from Honduras, was allowed to plead guilty to trespass on agricultural land, served 63 days in jail and was given a suspended two-year prison sentence and two years of probation.

A drug conviction can be grounds for deportation of a legal immigrant, but federal authorities must take that action.

What's squishy: An illegal immigrant can be deported just for illegal entry into the United States; a plea bargain wouldn't impact that.

Denver court records identified the defendant only as Walter Noel Ramo, with no alias, so there's no evidence showing Ramo and the man identified in the ad as Carlos Estrada Medina are the same person. The Beauprez campaign provided no records confirming the defendant's sex offense arrest in California.