Mayor Stuart Crosby said if the legislation restricted the ability of the council to recover fair and reasonable costs from liquor licensees, then he would be "more than annoyed".
Councillors were told there was a big unknown around how the fee structure associated with the legislation would be rolled out by the Government this year.
"This is the stupidity of the whole thing," Mr Crosby said.
He successfully argued that because it was an issue Tauranga had in common with the rest of the country's councils, there should be one legal opinion from Local Government New Zealand.
The council also agreed to axe a proposed $150,000 late addition to rates after it disputed a staff assumption that the council would be left holding extra costs when it re-tendered its cleaning contract.
It was revealed the current contractor's 2010 tender had been $1 million lower than the next bid and Transpacific Industries had decided to end its contract on June 30 rather than take the option of a two-year extension. A report to the council said the contractor's price appeared to be unsustainable.
However, Mr Crosby opposed signalling to the market the council was putting aside extra cash in anticipation of a big increase in tender prices. It was agreed to remove the $150,000 from budgets and see what came back from the tender process.
