Queenstown Lakes District Council's legal fees over the Queenstown Airport share sale to Auckland Airport have ballooned to $183,000 - up from $120,000 in November.
"They're high but at this point unavoidable," council finance manager Stewart Burns said of the unforeseen legal spending.
Legal action was taken by the Queenstown Community Strategic Asset Group and Air New Zealand Ltd against the council, the airport corporation and Auckland Airport in August.
The two parties lodged separate applications with the High Court at Invercargill over the alliance, seeking a judicial review and an injunction to stop Queenstown Airport issuing any further shares to Auckland.
Council accounting manager Ian Stewart yesterday explained budgeting variances for the year ending October 31 at the inaugural meeting of the new council finance and corporate committee, chaired by John Mann. Cr Mann's nomination, Russell Mawhinney, was elected committee deputy chairman.
Airport litigation spending comes under the budgeting category governance and district promotion, which was $299,000 over budget, including $117,000 - half the amount paid in the Wanaka landfill settlement. The other half of the landfill settlement was paid out of the regulatory budget.
That means council has spent 37.6% of its governance and district promotion budget since the start of the July 1 financial year.
Kawarau Falls paid an outstanding $3.6 million bill for assessed development contributions on Friday, a figure more than half the $7.6 million in development debt owed to the council.
