Two businesses joined the state's top sales-tax debtors in recent months, according to a sales-tax-permit revocation list maintained by the Department of Revenue.

Diggers Sales & Service, Inc., operating as Prior Lake Polaris, lost its permit after failing to pay 34 months of sales taxes totalling $601,440, the state said. The debt put the business in second place on the list, close behind E Street Makers, Inc., which owed $648,929 when its permit was revoked.

The other business to make the list recently, Matters Maintenance Group, Inc., an Eagan company doing business as My Maids, is in fourth place. It owes the state $366,083 for failing to pay sales taxes since September 2000, according to the state.

Businesses stay on the list until debts are paid in full.

JANE FRIEDMANN