Though there are surely some deadbeats on the list - does anyone really think the abandoned Regency Mall is ever going to pay its $56,499 tax bill? - one has to accept in good faith most of those who claim they didn't know they were behind on their taxes.

This is because breakdowns in communication between tax officials and the public should be expected when communications between the tax officials themselves have been broken for years.

The last time The Chronicle reported on the city's tax delinquency two years ago, the problem was blamed on incompatible software between the tax assessor's office, which compiles tax data, and the tax commissioner's office, which collects taxes.

The software problems that stifled computer communications between the two departments should be fixed in six months, Tax Commissioner Jerry Saul said back then. Well, it's been two years and the software problem still hasn't been fixed. That excuse is wearing thin, and Saul now says it's up to the local government's data processing division to harmonize the two systems. That would be under the leadership of Information Technology Director Tameka Allen.

Taxpayers don't really care who's responsible for what, but they would expect a two-year-old problem to be fixed by now.

Despite the computer problems, the city's collection rate is still at 95.2 percent, says Saul, which puts it in the top 10 percent of Georgia's 159 counties, but down from a 99 percent collection rate in 1999.

Saul also puts into perspective the $12.3 million in unpaid taxes over more than four years. That's a lot of money - quite enough to ease the city's budget woes. But consider that Saul's office sends out about $90 million in tax bills each year. Over four years that's $360 million in tax bills, of which only $12 million goes uncollected.

Saul says that's a rate any tax collector would be proud of, but that's small consolation to taxpayers who think they're paid up and then are embarrassed to learn they still owe thousands of dollars.