The city's 40 most important agencies have posted their worst single-month performance records since Mayor Bloomberg started a new monitoring system two years ago, records show.
Out of 465 performance measurements listed on the Citywide Performance Report on the city's official Web site, 237 are up and 228 are down.
Most of the measures compared data for July of this year versus July of last year, the most recent statistics available.
Response time to life-threatening medical emergencies by ambulances and Fire Department engines increased 3.5 percent, from 5 minutes, 44 seconds to 5:56.
Even though call volume on the 311 system was down by 70,000, it took 43 seconds to get through to an operator, compared to 26 seconds last year.
There was a similar pattern at the Buildings Department, where "priority A" complaints fell from 1,864 to 1,371, but the time it took to check them out shot up by 67 percent, from .2 to .4 days.
Waiting for a property-tax refund? The check won't be in the mail for 17 days, versus 10 days last year.
The backlog of broken and inoperable fire hydrants spurted from 422 to 590, a 40 percent increase.
City officials stressed that the data largely covered only a single month and would undoubtedly change by the end of the fiscal year, July 30, 2011.
But the CPR system was purposely designed to present monthly data to the public and to serve as an "early warning system" so agency heads could make adjustments - especially during a time of budget cuts, when they must do more with less.
Mayoral spokesman Jason Post said the numbers have to be viewed in context.
"Each month, we are competing against our own success," he said. "Each indicator tells its own story, and not all of them are declining due to budget cuts."
A Buildings Department spokesman attributed the increase in response times to inspectors' "conducting more thorough and more proactive investigations."
