Remember when the Budget used to be fun?

Good morning and welcome to Budget day.

For younger readers, let me tell you it's not what it used to be. It used to be fun, there used to be stories of the Finance Minister getting a haircut, stories of the minister's new tie, whether he'd bought a new suit, even when it was Ruth Richardson (minus the tie story).

If you go back to my childhood, it was really fun. Back when Muldoon ran the place no one had a clue what was going to happen on Budget day. But most guessed and it generally involved the tax on booze and fags and petrol going up, so everyone rushed out to stock up.

Then on Budget night - it was night-time back then - we'd all gather around the telly and wait for the surprises. It's all become so sophisticated in ensuing years.

There was the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which meant governments had to tell everyone what they were actually doing with our money.

Then Budget day got moved to afternoons, then we got pre-Budget announcements.

All of this made sense. They discovered that in pre-announcing things, you got to announce them twice, and all the good bits of news got their fair share of airtime, thus allowing the government of the day to extract maximum mileage. Downside for the punter: it was no longer an event of revelations.

So here we are in 2015, and today no one will be gasping, for breath, but then again nor should we.

In the days of Ruth Richardson and Rob Muldoon Budgets were more showbiz than economic update. File photo / NZ Herald

Thank God we have come of age fiscally speaking.

Doesn't it seem too bizarre for words that someone like Muldoon could really have treated us that way? That our money and what was done with it was a showbiz affair, not an economic update? Bill English, who's delivered a few of these now, still has his work cut out, which from my point of view is today's biggest letdown.

Bill has no money, and he promised he would. Bill made much of the surplus he was going to deliver and he's missed it and missed it badly. Oh, I know they ran that line about percentages compared with overall income ... which technically is true, sort of.

But here's what I know about centre-right governments, they run economies properly - that's their calling card. So when they don't, or they fail to deliver on promises, their credibility comes into question. What gave them so much kudos in the early years is in danger of being dented.

The global financial crisis and the Christchurch quakes would have tested any economic manager and sunk most, but this lot sailed their way through in impressive fashion, earning themselves a reputation for solid economic stewardship.

So when they started talking about a return to the black, who was going to argue?

Yet here we are over six years into their tenure, having lived through some of the most affluent and successful years the country has seen, and what have they got to show for it by way of profit? Nothing.

First report was they'd miss by a handful of millions, now it's out to hundreds of millions. And that's only part of the trouble. Even if Bill manages to explain why we are where we are, part of today's document is allegedly going to be the promise of tax cuts.

Guess when they're going to hand those out? That's right, the year after next.

Which is? That's right, election year.

If you can get past that flagrant bit of cynicism, you then come to the very real question of just how Bill is going to magically pay for them. Tax cuts cost a fortune. They are one of the most expensive things a government can do, giving people a decent amount of money back has an eye-watering bill attached to it.

And you've got to do it right. Too little and people ask what the point was, decent amounts and you're open to accusations of not only vote-buying but of where all the money has come from.

Don't get me wrong ... I love tax cuts, I want one, I hope Bill gets the money to pay for them. But between now and 2017, he has to find a hell of a lot of coin to foot that bill.

And that is against a backdrop of a milk market that's struggling, a dollar that's high, commodities generally still solid but not what they were, and a forecast of growth that's still reasonable without being spectacular.

The point being, if he hasn't got any money now ... and these have been the halcyon days ... where's he getting it over the next 24 months?

Now having pointed that bit out, it's also important to emphasise that these are still pretty robust times. These are still very much days in which the growth can be found and the jobs are there to be had.

All you have to do is look to Joe Hockey's efforts last week to know and see what a stark contrast we have going between the two countries.

Of course we'll get the usual line-up of complaints today, over what wasn't spent and who didn't get enough attention. But if the Budget is a fiscal reflection of the state of the nation ... there is a lot to be pleased about.

And if you're the Finance Minister a lot to be proud of.

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