Accounting standard change hits NSW budget IT'S only fair the latest NSW budget is judged on the same basis that previous budgets were judged. At least that's the way treasurer Mike Baird sees it. Using accounting standards that applied previously, the budget would have still been in deficit in 2013/14, according to forecasts released on Tuesday, but only by $329 million. However, based on new accounting standard applying from this year the deficit is forecast to be $1.89 billion. The difference is all about superannuation. The NSW government has a truckload of liabilities under old defined-benefit superannuation schemes for public servants. Those schemes pay a predetermined benefit - usually a fixed proportion of the employee's salary before retirement. Successive governments have built up about $30 billion of assets to fund these payments, but the income is not enough. Under the old guidelines, the government would have estimated its earnings based on the historical trend and advice from independent experts. That would have meant a forecast rate of return of 8.6 per cent and a shortfall of $2.343 billion. But under the new rules the government has to assume, no matter how unrealistically, a return in line with long-term government bonds. With bond yields near historic lows, the government's super assets are assumed to earn a return of only 3.3 per cent, meaning a shortfall of $3.904 billion in 2013/14. That's why the budget deficit for 2013/14 is $329 million under the old accounting method, the one understandably preferred by Mr Baird, but $1.89 billion under the new standards. What really matters is how the deficit turns out when the figures are tallied up a little over a year from now - when the return rate on super assets will figure highly.