With no discussion and a unanimous vote, the St. Tammany Parish Council accepted the 2009 budget Thursday night.

The $99.1 million budget is 6.15 percent smaller than the 2008 budget, with $14.7 million going to capital projects and the rest being operating expenses for the parish.

Parish President Kevin Davis said he was very conservative with the 2009 budget because of the current national economic crisis that has affected the parish. He said the housing boom created by Hurricane Katrina has slowed to a trickle, which means less revenue, because the number of building permits has decreased from a high of 2,900 permits to less than 1,000 for 2008. Except for the new judgeships, the budget does not have any new parish personnel positions. Even though all parish employees will get a 2 percent cost-of-living raise, the 2009 budget does not contain any merit raises.

The parish administration also took into account an estimated loss of $5 million in sales tax, and the council voted to roll back property tax millage last month. The reduction in revenue, Davis said, will put some road projects on the back burner until a new source of revenue can be found.

Davis doesn’t see the drop in revenue and fees as being a one-year event, and the parish will see a long-term vigil on keeping operating costs down.

The council approved the 2009 budget by a unanimous vote of 10-0, with Councilmen Marty Dean, Marty Gould, Richard Artigue and Gary Cooper absent.

On a brighter financial note, the council also approved the sale of $8 million in bonds for the St. Tammany Coroner’s Office. The firm of Morgan Keegan, which presented the lowest bid of 5.03 percent interest, will handle the bonds. This beat out the other bidder, Merrill-Lynch, which offered 5.7 percent.

Bond counsel for the parish Grant Schlueter said the low interest rate was a real plus for the parish in the current nationwide credit crunch. He said the other reason the parish got such a good interest rate is because St. Tammany Parish has maintained the highest bond rating of AA. A high bond rating means low interest rates.

“In fact, it is the highest bond rating of any parish in the state,” Schlueter said. “Even though credit is tight, we were able to get low bids on the bonds.”

Schlueter said he does not see the parish’s bond rating going down in the future, which means bids on future bond issues will mean low interest rates.