Legal costs of $606,000 - a legacy of the Queenstown Airport share sale litigation - have been revealed to be the only major overspending by the Queenstown Lakes District Council in the past financial year.
The six-figure bill stood in contrast to the wider trend of figures submitted at last week's finance and corporate committee meeting, but it reduced a significant overall operating budget underspend to just $26,000.
Last year's $27.7 million controversy, in which the Queenstown Airport Corporation created a 24.99% new shareholding and sold it to Auckland Airport, started a nine-month legal saga, the effects of which are still becoming apparent.
Even with the unforeseen legal costs, the $346,000 overspend in governance and district promotion costs was offset in other operating budgets.
The greatest underspend came in roading and parking, with $2,143,000 unspent, and resource management and regulatory services posting $840,000 of its budget unspent.
Councillor Trevor Tattersfield expressed concern over such a large percentage of the budgeted capital expenditure remaining unspent, especially when, for instance, roading contractors needed work.
"This tells me that we have only spent 46% of our capital budget and all of this would have been rated and funded for," Cnr Tattersfield said. "It's not very good performance."
Council finance manager Stewart Burns said council should investigate the underspending.
