A review of council-owned Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) has yet to be completed, but signals about operational funding levels have been obvious enough for the Dunedin City Council as it works through budgets.
Grants and subsidy costs for an area of the council called "vibrant economy" have been budgeted at $3.2m for 2025-26 and this is an increase of about $2.3m.
That was mostly because of a "placeholder budget" of $2m to support DVML, a report for councillors said.
Cr Lee Vandervis asked a series of questions at the meeting about what he described as a "$2m subsidy".
Council chief executive Sandy Graham said there was a "piece of work going on that is looking at the operating model for the stadium, and so until that work is complete, we do need to make some allowance for the outcome of that review".
The review is being carried out by Ernst & Young.
Cr Vandervis asked if the money had already been spent and Ms Graham said it had not been.
He also asked why the council was allocating money in its draft budget before the review was in.
"The review has already signalled, as you know, councillor, the likely level of funding, so we are reasonably confident of the level of funding that is being applied," Ms Graham said.
The amount in 2025-34 long-term plan draft budgets was subject to the outcome of the review, "but money is going to be required".
Other elements of the review had yet to be finalised, she said.
Cr Vandervis said he had long been concerned about "major stadium purchases that were not appropriately signalled in advance, in my view", although he acknowledged the chief executive had said the $2m had not been spent already.
Meanwhile, the Taxpayers' Union was not impressed by the council heading to public consultation with a proposed $4.4m boost over four years for events and festivals.
"It's an unfortunate lesson in corporate welfare," the union's local government campaigns manager, Sam Warren, said.
"Last year, Dunedin locals suffered a 17.5% average increase to their rates.
"Council should be looking harder at finding savings, not funding nice-to-haves."
