NSW Budget 2015: Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian rolling in clover

Gladys Berejiklian can barely keep the grin off her face when discussing her first budget.

And little wonder: she has come into the job just as the benefits of the tough spending decisions made during the first four years of the O'Farrell-Baird governments are starting show.

Measures such as job cuts and wage rise caps for public servants and across-the-board departmental budget cuts have all meant expenses are now well under control.

On the revenue side, a strong NSW economy and record stamp duty receipts from the booming Sydney property market mean the government is in clover.

Finally, Berejiklian's first budget comes shortly after the government passed its legislation to pave the way for a partial sale of the electricity network businesses, from which it expects to reap about $20 billion.

This has allowed her to announce she will start spending $591 million of the windfall tax revenues almost immediately on projects that otherwise would have had to wait until the businesses were sold.

The one black mark in the budget is the impact of the Commonwealth government's decision to reduce grants for health and education to the states from 2017-18.

This translates to a half a billion dollar hit to the final two years of the forward estimates - and things are set to get progressively worse from there.

Berejiklian says this is "unsustainable" and has vowed to fight the federal government for NSW's "fair share".

The opposition has zeroed in, demanding that Premier Mike Baird and Berejiklian use their influence with their federal Coalition colleagues, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey, to fix it.

It's probably the one real test in this budget for the new Treasurer – and one she and Baird are sure to be harshly marked down on if they fail.