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By Melissa Pettitt

One local school district is “hopeful” the recent repeal of the prevailing wage law by the General Assembly will have a positive impact on the school district, specifically, how much upcoming projects will cost, according to Brad Hawkins, chief operations officers for Christian County Public Schools.

The new bill repealing prevailing wage, House Bill 3, went into law Monday after being signed by Gov. Bevin. It abolishes the minimum prevailing wage requirement for public projects, as well as bans local government entities from creating their own. The repeal could have big impacts on struggling school districts, who have been subject to paying prevailing wages on construction projects.

Hawkins said the repeal could drive down construction cost, directly impacting the bottom line for building and renovation projects the school district hopes to accomplish.

“Hopefully it will be a positive impact for us, in that we would be able to hire contractors and different individuals cheaper, or have projects built at a cheaper cost than what they have cost us in the past,” Hawkins said. “It should help us by making the cost of construction projects cheaper so that we can do more with what we have.”

Rep. Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, told the Kentucky New Era in December that impacts of repealing prevailing wage may be seen immediately and that communities “could build five schools for the price of four.”

“We’re getting ready to break ground on a huge building at the community college. It could save millions on that project by just the repealing of the prevailing wage,” Thomas said.

Hawkins said the school district has around $100 million in unmet facility needs, but only $11 million in bonding capacity. Saving money on project cost would allowed them to complete more facility projects, he said.

“Hopefully it will allow us to do more projects that we have on the list with the amount of money that we have currently available to us,” he said.