Apparently nothing illegal caused the real estate tax money collected by the city during April to be less than anticipated. However, poor communication and a lack of anticipation among city officials - and bad judgment - cannot be ruled out as part of the reason why April collections were listed as down by $532,000 when compared with April collections in recent years.

As predicted by Ralph D'Antonio, city treasurer, the April shortfall was the result of the deadline for discounted tax payments falling over a weekend, with qualifying discounted payments (having an April postmark) being accepted by city officials after the beginning of this month.

What was known at the city council's meeting on Tuesday was that either fewer people took advantage of the discount tax rate in effect through April 29, or money collected at the end of the month wasn't deposited until this month.

April 29 was a Friday.

The answer to April's purported lower collection turned out to be a matter of timing and having the end of the month fall on a weekend. But, still, confusion over the glitch in official collections should not have existed three weeks into the month.

City officials involved in tax collection should have known to expect some lag in official collections by the closing of the books on, April 29. Knowing that, they should have gathered up all qualifying tax payments (those with April postmarks and those dropped into the city building's mail slot over the weekend) that were received in the office on May 2.

It would have been a simple matter to tally these last-minute tax collections and amend or provide an attachment to the official April accounting report on tax receipts. Such a procedure would have avoided the confusion that surfaced at Tuesday's meeting.

Thursday's revelation that Joe Bratkovich contacted City Clerk Bob Brehm, but not D'Antonio, about the disconcerting financial statement suggests there is a communication problem among city officials.

There should have been no confusion about what happened with the April collections by the time of Tuesday's meeting.

The condition of the city's finances is all of the officials' business.

"Tax shortfall reported in city" was the headline on Wednesday's front-page story reporting on Tuesday's meeting. In most communities, it wouldn't have been necessary to write the story, because such a question wouldn't have arisen.

If city officials aren't embarrassed about having to discuss the tax collection anomaly, they should be.