Robert Cherry, the head of the city police union, declined to comment.
Police officers, firefighters and unionized city employees received a 3 percent pay bump this year. Elected officials are not allowed to receive a pay raise unless at least one union group also gets a salary increase.
The vote on the elected officials' pay increase came the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and several weeks after Dixon announced that the city had to slash $36.5 million from the current year's $2.1 billion spending plan.
City officials plan to reach that target in part by freezing $2.2 million in raises to middle managers. The Police Department disbanded specialized units, shifting officers into regular patrol duties to curtail overtime expenses.
Dixon predicts next year will be worse, with a $65 million projected gap between revenue and expenses. She has asked agency heads to cut an average of 12.9 percent of their general fund appropriations. Proposals include rotating firehouse closures and reducing city trash collection to once a week.
Before last year, salaries of the mayor and other city elected officials were raised through legislation introduced by a City Council member and approved by the full body. A sitting City Council could not vote on its own salary, so raises would affect paychecks of the next elected council and mayor.
In practice, political realities would frequently limit increases. In 2004, council members scrapped a bill that would have raised salaries 6 percent, with one councilman citing "degrading" criticism at public meetings.
The salary for Baltimore's mayor was $60,000 a year as recently as 1995 and was $95,000 until 1999. When Martin O'Malley became the city's chief executive, pay was bumped to $108,000.
A 2006 City Charter amendment that garnered nearly 70 percent support from city voters created a compensation commission for elected officials in Baltimore, patterned after a similar body that recommends salaries for the governor and state legislators. The commission's recommendations become law unless the council votes down the actions.
In March 2007, the city commission recommended pay increases of 18 percent to 26 percent for elected officials and 2.5 percent annual adjustments after that. The council declined to vote on the recommendations, which became law.
