Christchurch City Council has to find an extra $75 million to repair broken roads and underground pipes under its cost sharing agreement with the government.
The $3 billion agreement for horizontal infrastructure repairs has ended up $473m under budget.
However the council has to pay $75m more than initially expected because in April 2014 the government stopped fixing roads and pipes which were near the end of their life span.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said the council had saved $106m on the agreement so there was no shortfall.
Mr Brownlee said the agreement is a $2.6bn programme so $75m is a relatively small amount.