State Sen. Tommy Kilby, D-Wartburg, said Wednesday a bill he sponsored allowing more studies of toll roads and bridges faces opposition, but reduced transportation funding makes it necessary.

“We don’t have unlimited resources,” said Sen. Kilby, a member of the Senate Transportation Committee.

The committee on Wednesday decided to delay a vote on a bill allowing more toll road and bridge projects to be studied by the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Panel members agreed to hold the vote next Wednesday after Sen. Kilby asked for more time to find answers on whether existing highways could be turned into toll roads.

TDOT officials said Wednesday that is not possible.

Sen. Kilby said the Senate bill could die from lack of support.

“I’ve been around long enough to know there’s a cold wind blowing,” Sen. Kilby said.

The proposal would expand a bill passed last year that allowed the state transportation department to study two pilot projects — a bridge and a road. The new bill would drop the limitation and allow an unrestricted number of projects.

A similar bill passed through the House Transportation Committee last week, officials said.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, said this week many committee members felt it is too soon to open the bill for more requests.

“I think it’s going to have a hard time getting through,” he said.

During the meeting, legislators also asked if $280 million taken from TDOT between 2001 and 2006 to help balance the state budget could be returned, and they discussed $237 million in federal funds lost over the past three years.

Rep. Phillip Pinion, D-Union City and chairman of the House Transportation Committee, told Senate committee members the funding shortage is the reason more tolling studies are needed. He said the cuts have hampered economic development and held up new road projects.

Tolling could be one of only a few options to help build new road and bridges, he said.

“We’re able to build bridges in Iraq, but we can’t build them in Tennessee,” he said.