Lawrence County employees will get their paychecks today, but county officials were holding their collective breath earlier in the week when Auditor Ray T. Dutey sent out a memo advising there could be a problem.

Dutey said earlier in the week, he had advised other officeholders the county was $75,000 short of making its $220,000 payroll.

But Thursday, the state forwarded county’s sale tax profits, roughly $320,000, and this alleviated the problem — for now.

“If we hadn’t gotten what we got, we could have not made it,” Dutey said. “We’re okay now but down the road we’re not. When we get a three-payroll month it is really going to take (a lot of money) and we’ve got all those bills upstairs and they’re holding onto more bills. I don’t know what the answer is.”

The county has three-payday months in May and October.

Dutey said the county could have asked the treasurer’s office for an advance from real estate taxes but the sales tax monies meant county officials did not have to do this.

Dutey said while Lawrence County’s financial picture looks bleak, it is hardly alone in its situation. Other counties as well as the state and federal governments are also mired in debt at a time when revenues are declining.