The Essex Board of Finance (BOF) unanimously adopted a mill rate of 22.43 for fiscal year 2021–’22, at its special meeting on June 10. The mill rate is a 0.62 mill, or 2.8 percent, increase from the current mill rate of 21.81.

The BOF will use $290,794 from unassigned funds, or the fund balance, to offset what could have been a potentially higher increase to the mill rate.

The town’s fund balance is now at 16.4 percent of the current town budget, according to Tracey Celentano, finance director for Essex, by phone after the meeting.

Asked about the impact of the reduction, Celentano said that “it depends where this year ends, but we should still be within the 15 percent range.”

She added that a rough estimate, after the reduction, would be a fund balance at about 15.44 percent of the budget. This is in line with the 5 to 15 percent recommended for a government’s unassigned fund balance by the national Government Finance Officers Association.

At the meeting, Celentano provided the BOF with the most up-to-date financial information for the town. She reported that overall tax collections were comparable to other fiscal years, at approximately $23.5 million, or 100.51 percent, as of the month of May. Local revenues in town clerk fees and conveyance taxes were also strong, and based on overall trends, the revenues forecast was increased to $353,000 at fiscal year-end.

“What’s really making this year strong is the real estate activity,” said Celentano, by phone. “Our conveyance taxes and our town clerk fees, the activity, the projects that people are doing at home and basically the real estate. People are moving to Essex. Property is selling.”