When certain Butler County officials decide to end their county service - or when such service is terminated by the voters - they should consider becoming spin doctors. For those not familiar with the term, that is a person who is employed to use "spin" in interpreting information or events so as to present them in a favorable light.

At a county commissioners meeting Tuesday, the spin was almost dizzying as officials tried to ease residents' concern over the fact that the cost of the new prison could be almost $10 million over original estimates - $10 million that was not borrowed by the county in the prison bond issue.

The officials chose not to emphasize that the $375,000 in savings that has been realized up to now from lower-than-projected bids and a budget cut still was leaving the project about $9.5 million over the original $30 million project total.

"If we keep going, we'll get it for nothing," Commissioner Glenn Anderson joked, while ignoring the extra millions of dollars the commissioners chose to spend unnecessarily by targeting prison construction for downtown Butler, rather than on county-owned land near Sunnyview Home.

Meanwhile, an observer unfamiliar with county government might have gotten the impression that solicitor Julie Graham was a voting member of the board of commissioners as she tried to add her own positive spin to a situation that clearly is not in taxpayers' best interests.

Apparently not content with her role as the county's legal adviser, she said the new savings figure "shows we're trying to be conservative in our approach." She said the low bids show the project's cost isn't ballooning out of control.

A $375,000 savings stacked against an incorrect estimate of about $10 million is cause for many cost-conscious people to disagree.

That is not to imply that additional savings regarding the prison project are not possible. If lower-than-anticipated construction bids are received, there could be a substantial additional savings.

However, $10 million in additional savings would seem remote without a major scale-back to the prison project, and there has been no indication such a move is being contemplated.

Pat Stone, construction manager for the project, commendably did not get caught up in Tuesday's "spin-doctoring." While pointing out that future phases of the project also could produce bids at the current estimates or lower, he cautioned that the savings wouldn't be as great as they were for the work discussed Tuesday.

County officials were correct in announcing the savings, but they were wrong in trying to put more weight to the savings than what was deserved. They were wrong in trying to create an incorrect impression in the minds of county residents - especially those who have not followed developments in the prison project closely.

Professional spin doctors pride themselves in their ability to make something bad look good - or at least palatable. County officials' atttempted performance in that role Tuesday left much to be desired.

There is no mystery why.

The $10 million in question portends to weigh heavily on county taxpayers for decades to come - as well as on the county government's ability to pursue other important initiatives.

Government officials genuinely trying to project an accurate picture of a situation for their constituents are content to employ facts, not generate spin, to impart their message.