PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Plans for a new Pawtucket Red Sox stadium reached a dead end Tuesday at the Rhode Island State House.

Leaders of the Democratic-controlled legislature blocked any consideration of the team's request for a $23 million state investment to help build a downtown Pawtucket ballpark.

Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, a North Providence Democrat, said it's too late in the legislative session to consider spending money on a baseball team when no one has seen the details and "we have bigger fish to fry, namely the budget."

Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien had been working with the Triple A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox to file legislation this week to finance the stadium. The Democratic mayor and PawSox Chairman Larry Lucchino have been enthusiastically pitching the $83 million project, which would include team and city investments. They have touted it as a much better deal for taxpayers than a 2015 proposal for a ballpark in Providence.

Democratic state Sen. Donna Nesselbush, whose Pawtucket district includes the proposed downtown stadium site, called it a "really exciting proposal" and said legislators will "have to do our due diligence and really dive in."

But with lawmakers struggling to patch revenue shortfalls as they write a budget for the next fiscal year that begins in July, top leaders said it was too late for that due diligence.

"I think there's a lot of consternation, especially when we have a deficit," Ruggerio said. "We're going to have to make some tough choices on that, and I know some people aren't keen about giving money to millionaires."

Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, of Cranston, said he wouldn't let the House take it up unless Gov. Gina Raimondo, also a Democrat, introduced the legislation and fully endorsed it.

Raimondo chimed in with a statement supporting moves to put the ballpark on the backburner, crediting Grebien for "so passionately advocating for Pawtucket" but agreeing with Ruggerio that "consideration of a new ballpark is too important to rush this legislative session."

The Raimondo administration's economic development agency had worked with the city and team to help set the boundaries of the financing plan. That led Mattiello to question why she was sending mixed signals by not endorsing a plan she helped negotiate.

Ruggerio said he wouldn't rule out convening a special session in the fall to take a closer look at the proposal. The baseball team has an agreement to play at its longtime home, Pawtucket's McCoy stadium, until 2020.