The bill for Wagga City Council's election was expected to be $425,868,however, the city's councillors made the decision in October to hold a referendum where voters will be asked whether the mayor should be popularly elected.

This comes with a cost increase of $47,000, which will be an ongoing expense every four years if voters decide to overhaul the way the mayor is elected.

Council's general manager Peter Thompson said an educational campaign will take place to ensure voters are informed before they go to the polling booth in September next year.

It is expected to cost the council about $50,000, Mr Thompson said, in addition to the expense of holding the referendum itself.

"So it is about $100,000 total in cost for the next election, but that is a once-off cost because we would not be doing the education campaign after that referendum," he said.

Some of the options the council will use as part of the community engagement program includes social media, television and print media and a flyer drop in residents' letterboxes.

Mr Thompson said the task ahead will be using all forms of media to reach the people who will be faced with this question and give them the best information the council could provide.

"The purpose of the education campaign is to make sure that when the voters go to the polls in September, they are well aware of this particular issue and don't see the question for the first time at the polling booth," he said.

"They will understand what the pros of a popularly elected mayor might be and what the cons might be.

"Some people are familiar with social media, others may be less, so we need to get all groups."

The city's councillors are yet to decide the exact question that will be asked after deferring the matter at Monday night's council meeting.