The proposed budget residents will consider at Thursday’s Chelsea Town Meeting is down more than $9,000 from the current budget and will likely lead to a property tax cut.

Voters at the 6:30 p.m. meeting at Chelsea Elementary will also be asked to approve a new ordinance that would restrict when a newly paved road can be torn up for natural gas pipelines and other utilities.

The Chelsea Board of Selectmen is recommending a municipal budget of $1 million and the Budget Committee is recommending spending $996,865, according to Town Manager Scott Tilton. Those are both down from the 2013-2014 budget of $1,009,378.

The amounts to be raised by property taxes in the recommended budgets are both up more than $30,000 from the current budget’s $412,878 total, but tax rate of $17.98 per $1,000 of assessed value is expected to decrease for residents, Tilton said. The town is expected to have a higher valuation because of new construction of natural gas pipeline and power lines, Tilton said, and its share of the county and school budgets also decreased.

“There isn’t really a lot of contentious items,” he said. “Property taxes will go down.”

He said he doesn’t know how much taxes will decrease yet.

One of the major differences between the select board’s and the budget committee’s recommended budgets is whether to fund a $3,000 request toward buying new hydraulic rescue cutters for the fire department. The board is recommending spending the money, which will fund half of the purchase, according to the town warrant.

The Budget Committee is also recommending some expenditures that the select board is not, including $3,364 to join the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments and $500 more for community groups and nonprofit organizations.

Tilton said he expects the most discussed warrant article will be the proposed street excavation ordinance.

The ordinance would prevent newly paved roads from being torn up for five years. Without the ordinance, the town doesn’t have a say on when a road can be excavated for a utility such as a natural gas line and how it will be repaved, Tilton said. The ordinance could make it more costly for a natural gas company to install pipeline along newly paved roads, but Tilton said he doesn’t expect natural gas to reach Chelsea residents for at least five years.

The town is planning to repave Oak Ridge Drive and portions of Dr. Mann and Ferry roads this summer. At last year’s Town Meeting, residents approved a $1 million bond to fund road work.

Paul Koenig — 621-5663

pkoenig@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @paul_koenig