Deciding how to vote on property tax ballot measures during a time of economic uncertainty is hard, as South Kitsap residents are learning (if they didn’t already know).

It doesn’t help matters when some politicians and others in the news media exaggerate things by calling this the “worst economic downturn” or “decline” or “recession” since the Great Depression.

It isn’t – not yet, anyway. So far, it has a fair chance of being worse than the recession of 1981-82.

The “credit freeze” last fall could fairly be called the “worst financial crisis” since the Great Depression, because the effect was worldwide and could result in a severe recession.

Transforming “worst financial crisis” into “worst recession” is not a fair description of the situation.

Much like what occurred during the presidential campaign of 1992, a correct statement of the situation tends to change into an incorrect statement.

Back then the mild recession that ended in March 1991 was followed by a low rate of growth.

What hadn’t gone down severely didn’t bounce back at the rate that had been common following more severe recessions.

The slow growth was described as the weakest or slowest recovery since the Great Depression.

That was a correct statement, although it would probably mislead people who didn’t realize why the growth wouldn’t be as rapid as usual.

Then the description changed. It became the “worst economy” since the Great Depression.

Since the recession had ended 19 months before the election of 1992, this little play on words was aggravating but not damaging to the economy.

Now, it is more serious when people give in to the tendency to claim that things are worse now than at any time since the Great Depression.

Such talk not only impacts decisions that have to made this year on our school district and fire district levy propositions, it reduces the probability that our economy will begin growing again this year.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933 included a statement that almost everyone has heard about: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

When severe recessions like the one that began in 1929 occur, the uncertain future causes people to be more cautious about spending, borrowing, lending and investing.

It was fair to call this reaction “fear” in 1933.

President George W. Bush said in September 2001, after a recession began in March and the terror attacks occurred only days before: “I ask your continued participation and confidence in the American economy.”

Not quite as poetic, was it? When the media transformed it into “go shopping,” it became fodder for jesters.

But the idea behind each remark, whether lauded as a statesman’s wisdom or simplistic stuff from someone who can’t turn a phrase, was the same.

Whether it is called fear or just reasonable precaution in the face of uncertainty, the tendency to reduce spending and investments has the short-term effect of postponing the economic recovery.

The long period of decline in retail spending during this recession makes it different from the last six recessions.

Previously, consumer spending began to increase within a few months after the beginning of a recession.

The continued decline in consumer spending became evident recently, as the county government saw that sales tax revenue in the last two months of 2008 had declined even more than expected.

Ironically, one effect of this reaction to recession was an increase in the rate of personal savings during 2008.

In 2005, the savings rate hit a low of 0.4 percent of income as Americans enjoyed the apparent wealth resulting from soaring property values.

That was the lowest savings rate since the Great Depression.

The savings rate went up to 1.7 percent in 2008 despite the slowing and then shrinking economy – still not nearly what people ought to save for their future security, but better than nothing.

When apprehensiveness about the future collides with the need to make a decision about next year’s property tax burden, it is hard to agree to a tax increase even when the amount is relatively small compared to the whole and won’t be felt for a year.

But the decisions could not be postponed, because the current voter-approved levies for the schools and emergency medical services expire this year.

As this is written, the votes have not been tabulated for Tuesday’s election, so the outcome for the school levy proposition isn’t known.

The public’s discussion has only recently started about the fire district’s emergency medical services levy that will be on the ballot in May.

The results in both these elections may indicate how apprehensive voters are about their own economic prospects in 2010 once the vote tallies can be compared to the last times these levies were on the ballot.

Robert Meadows is a Port Orchard resident.