Are we there yet? Nearly. Bill English's six-year search for a surplus reached crunch point in yesterday's Budget. National long ago set a target of the 2014-15 year for a return to surplus. Yesterday was D-Day - Deficit-Free Day.
We'll have to wait a year or so for the Government's accounts to tell us whether yesterday's forecast of a $372 million surplus turns out to be on the button or not. The eventual outcome is somewhat academic, however, in part because the intervening general election will be long won or lost by then.
The debate over the surplus has to happen now. It is not a large figure. Its survival hangs on projections of a bigger tax take. National's opponents have picked holes in it, but have yet to find any major example of fiscal jiggery pokery to render the forecast null and void.
The figure is credible. Bill English has done his job. He has delivered. Even if the forecast is not realised because someone sneezes on Wall Street, he has proved to be close enough to a surplus, give or take a few hundred million dollars, to be credited with doing so.
A surplus is much more than a figure, however. It is a symbol of fiscal discipline. It is something to which everyone can relate even if they don't understand the detail. It imbues the Finance Minister with an aura of competence - regardless of whether he or she come from left or right.