"We have to plan short-term," Wilson said. "We have to look hard at the big projects. They all look critical, but if it takes another 20 year to build it, we're putting ourselves in a situation to build something that is 20 years dated from today."

 

A bill to increase the gasoline tax by 17 cents per gallon to fund transportation projects stalled in the House, where conservative lawmakers blocked Rep. Steve Carter's bill from getting the two-thirds vote necessary to pass the tax. Instead of forcing the vote, Carter pulled the bill.

 

Wilson said some big DOTD projects, such as preliminary environmental studies for a new Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge, will move forward because "we don't want to waste the money that we've already spent. If I just stopped the environmental process now, everything we've spent up to now would be wasted" because of federal environmental deadlines.

 

However, large projects that do not have prior financial investment at risk won't have the kind of support from the department they used to have. "We can't continue to spend money on preliminary studies for mega-projects in the hope that one day we'll have the funding to build them," Wilson explained. "I don't think we can waste money like that anymore. We now have the real issue of making match."

 

The secretary said he recently met with some engineering firms concerning several New Orleans-area projects, including improvements to Causeway Boulevard and Interstate 10, new bridges on Florida Avenue and Peters Road and replacing the Belle Chasse tunnel. Wilson said he had to inject some reality into the conversation.

 

"All that ain't gonna happen," he said. "And that conversation has to happen in every region of the state. It's a matter of looking at spending $10 million in preliminary work on a big project that has no funding versus paying for 20 miles of asphalt. We have to plan short-term. It's not going to be business as usual."

 

Wilson said he knew it would be difficult to pass a gas tax, but he did not anticipate the lengths to which the Republican Party would go "to prevent Governor Edwards from having a win. I was greatly disappointed in some people. Privately, legislators would tell me, 'Hey, I think you're doing everything right, we all know there's a need and this is what we have to do.' Then, they turned around and would say exactly the opposite publicly."

 

The biggest lie - often repeated by "those who know better" -  was the statement that only 11 percent of state highway funds go toward projects, Wilson said. "I learned that truth is no longer universally accepted."

 

The "11 percent" statement gives the public the impression that DOTD is a wasteful organization that cannot be trusted with more funds, but the reality is that "we've tightened our belt and improved 'til we're blue in the face," Wilson said. "Being more efficient has only gotten us so far."

 

Looking back, Wilson said he appreciates the transportation coalition of local governments, chambers of commerce, private companies and multi-modal representatives that came together during the session. "I think it's important for us to maintain that coalition."

 

Wilson said he was disappointed in the failure of the tax, "but good legislation takes multiple attempts. Most gas tax bills fail their first time."

 

Because the Louisiana Legislature can consider fiscal bills only in an odd-numbered year, prevailing political wisdom is that it will be 2021 before a similar package could be presented to the legislature, since 2019 is an election year. "I think that's sound reasoning," Wilson said. "Unless the Republicans break and come to their senses, the most likely scenario is for this to come up again in John Bel's second term, in the first fiscal session."

 

"We were right on the issue, we were right on the policy, we were right on the approach. And,  most importantly, we didn't settle for anything that wouldn't have been impactful."