Mr Baird will leave parliament next week following a Liberal party-room meeting where the seventh Premier in little more than a decade is to be installed. 

After two years and nine months in the state’s top job, Mr Baird is stepping down to give his successor a clear run at the 2019 state election and because his parents and sister had serious health problems.

Wagga MP Daryl Maguire said the Riverina struck it rich under Mr Baird’s leadership, reflected in the lowest unemployment rate outside of Sydney, 7000 new jobs and a 29 per cent increase in housing approvals in 2015-16.

Mr Maguire boasted of investments including $282.1m spent upgrading the Wagga hospital and another $170m to come, more than $17m for the new Wagga courthouse, $13.2 million towards the Bomen freight hub and more than $5m toward the levee bank upgrade. 

“The Premier will leave with an economy that’s the envy of the nation,” he said.

Mr Maguire conceded the Premier’s controversial forced council mergers program was “more than a distraction” and conceded “sometimes we make mistakes”.

Cootamundra MP Katrina Hodgkinson was “totally surprised” by Mr Baird’s decision.

Ms Hodgkinson suggested the resignation explained why the government had delayed a cabinet reshuffle, which was due after former deputy leader Troy Grant's resigned following the party's disastrous showing in November’s Orange byelection. 

Ms Hodgkinson was shuffled off the front bench following Mr Baird’s 2015 victory and further demoted in August for taking a stand against the greyhound racing ban, but had nothing but praise for him.

“He's a man of high intelligence and integrity, and would have taken a lot of time to consider his resignation,” she said.

Ms Hodgkinson conceded forced council mergers and the mooted greyhound racing ban were “distractions to what has otherwise been an exceptional performance”.

Asked whether she hoped to return to the ministry, Ms Hodgkinson said she’d “love to serve in some formal capacity in the future, but that’s a matter for premier and deputy premier”.

Premier Baird wiped the state of all debt for the first time in two decades. 

The most likely successor is NSW Treasurer and previously Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian.