By Lauren McSherry

Los Altos Hills has joined Los Altos and Mountain View in rebuffing the Valley Transportation Authority’s proposed half-cent sales tax increase to offset Measure A project shortfalls.

VTA representatives have been testing the waters, going city to city to determine whether councils would support the VTA board’s Long-term Capital Investment Program in which the proposed sales tax raise would go toward the Measure A Transit Improvement Program.

Extending BART from San Jose to Fremont is part of the bond measure approved by voters in 2000. Raising the sales tax countywide would require another ballot measure and two-thirds approval from voters.

“Most cities have been responding to the VTA that they supported the plan as long as BART to San Jose did not prevent other Measure A programs from going forward,” said Hills Councilman Breene Kerr, who serves as an alternate VTA board member.

A civil grand jury concluded last May, after an inquiry into VTA financial management, that the VTA should delay expenditures for BART and provide more complete funding for other transit options.

“I’m against increasing the sales tax, and I would encourage the council to take a stand opposing an increase in a county tax,” Councilman Craig Jones said. “I think the timing is bad,” he added, citing that the county is emerging from a recession.

The council is expected to approve a proclamation urging the VTA to develop a capital investment plan that does not rely on a sales tax increase.