The Vernon County Board is meeting on Thursday morning in a special meeting that has statewide ramifications.

The county board will be asked to pass three resolutions, which if supported, will be considered by the Wisconsin Counties Association at its annual meeting in La Crosse in September.

“It was critical that we hold this meeting now so these resolutions could be passed before June 15,” Vernon County Board Chairman Tom Spenner said. “These resolutions are important to us, timely and really important statewide.”

The board normally wouldn’t have met until June 30.

Two of the resolutions have local origins. One is forwarding the Vernon County Sales Tax to the Wisconsin Counties Association (WCA) for its endorsement. Last year, county voters approved a referendum to establish a .05 percent sales tax to be used to pay for dam repairs. Since that referendum has been passed, it has not been considered by the State Legislature, which must pass the measure before it can be implemented.

If the resolution is approved by the WCA, it will go before the legislature.

Another resolution to be considered was an idea originally brought forward by Vernon County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Jim Hanson. Hanson told the county’s strategic planning committee about escalating problems with state mandates about three months ago.

“What we regularly see is the state mandating that the county provide some service and funding it for two years,” Spenner said. “Then after the next budget, the state drops its funding, but we’re still under the mandate to provide the service, for which there’s no money.”

The resolution on unfunded mandates would seek to have mandated programs continually funded by the state.

A third resolution comes from the WCA and it opposes an effort by Gov. Jim Doyle to have the prevailing wage law changed.

Spenner said Doyle’s proposed budget seeks to have almost all municipal projects bid at state wage levels. This would inevitably hurt rural contractors, he said.

The Vernon County Board will have five resolutions on its agenda for Thursday. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m.