Cr Perkins said with external funding applications under way, and outside funders requiring the council and community fundraising to be one-third of the project's costs, the now $6 million amalgamation of the Forrester Gallery, North Otago Museum and Waitaki District Archive would require the
council to up its ante.
Two years ago, the council agreed to contribute $1.5 million to the then $4.5 million project, a third of the estimated total project cost.
And the project had already received $111,000 from local charitable trusts.
But at a March 29 meeting, councillors would be asked to increase the council's contribution to $1.9 million which would increase the council and community fundraising contribution to a third of the estimated budget.
Cr Perkins said, importantly, the $400,000 difference would not come from a loan, but instead would come from ''available'' depreciation reserves earmarked for the Forrester Gallery.
The majority of the increase in the new budget estimate came from a better understanding of the required fit-out for the new building.
''We can build a big building, but if it doesn't do the job that it was designed for, then you have to question the spending of the original amount for the bricks and mortar as well,'' Cr Perkins said.
Councillors had also indicated some ''tension'' about avoiding a future budget blowout, he said.
''The way that councillors have addressed it is to say that if we can't see the [capital] project being funded in full to the now target of $6 million, then it won't go ahead at all. That's our stated position.
"But there will be some choices to be made if we can't raise the outside funds. The outside funds will really be the make-or-break factor in this.''
After the council learnt whether the project had received outside funding, the decision on whether to go ahead would be made by councillors in July.
Council community services group manager Dr Thunes Cloete said the increased budget estimate for the project was not due to ''tweaks to the plans''.
''What has changed is that we redid the quantity surveying. When we redid that, there was about a $150,000 difference. We also increased the fit-out.''
A council spokeswoman confirmed yesterday the proposed increase in the council's contribution would come from depreciation reserves, and ''rates will not be increased because of this project''.
