Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello's proposed 2025 budget is in, but not without some City Council members criticizing its timing.

Mantello submitted the budget ahead of the 11:59 p.m. deadline Thursday night — but in a statement, council Democrats say that budget was delivered just seven minutes before the deadline, with corrected materials sent almost an hour after that.

In the statement, Council President Sue Steele and Councilmembers Aaron Vera and Katie Spain-McLaren said the timing of the budget proposal "falls far short of the level of transparency that taxpayers deserve."

The mayor's budget includes a 1.89% tax increase, which Mantello says is one of the lowest in recent years despite mandated cost increases. A press release from the mayor's office also says the city's garbage fee will remain the same, while the mayor's administration looks for "ways of phasing out this fee for residents."

The budget was submitted without the city having a comptroller, but was done with the help of an outside accounting firm, according to the mayor's office.

"Without quarterly reports for the last nine months, the council and taxpayers have been in the dark about how much money was spent with zero oversight or public discussion," council Democrats said in their statement. "More than $200,000 has been spent on outside financial consultants this year, including to BST for preparing the proposed spending plan. The contract with BST approved by the city council did not include budget preparation, something BST representatives explicitly said they would not be involved with during an earlier council meeting. Meanwhile, the city comptroller job has remained vacant since July.

In a conversation Friday with Spectrum News 1, Mantello said her administration has been transparent about the difficulties of managing this year’s proposal without a comptroller, both with the city council and the public. She said her administration was the first in 40 years to enter office without a comptroller.

“To submit the budget proposal by the deadline of October 10 was a Herculean effort,” Mantello said.

She also said the city is close to hiring a new comptroller, but the decision cannot be made lightly.