With recent pay cuts and proposed tuition hikes, University of Hawaii-Manoa staff and students are feeling the squeeze, and proposed parking rate increases for the next five years could add to their financial woes.

"It’s terrible because college students don’t have money," said UH junior Michael Stevenson Jr. "It may be fine, but anything that costs money, I don’t like."

The Board of Regents gave the nod Wednesday to holding public hearings on the UH-Manoa administration proposal to raise rates beginning with fiscal year 2013 over a five-year period. Annual parking rates for employees on the upper campus will jump 30 percent in 2013 to $753 from $579; 15 percent the second year; and 5 percent the remaining three years, reaching $1,008 in 2017.

Student parking permit rates (only available on the lower campus) per semester will rise 10 percent the first year to $157 a semester from the current $142, and by 5 percent each subsequent year, reaching $193 in 2017.

"It’s a systematic way to drain money from us," said UH graduate student Peter Laura. "It’s not just parking; it’s everything else. It’s just general inflation that we can’t control."

But since no increases have occurred in the last 12 years, parking rates have been held "artificially low," said Deborah Huebler, assistant director of campus services at UH-Manoa.

For UH-Manoa Parking Operations to continue as a self-sustaining body, "actions have to be taken to reduce operating costs," UH-Manoa officials said.

UH-Manoa Parking Operations recommended and identified more than $7.9 million in repair and maintenance projects in 2011 as priority, "which if not completed in the short term, may become health and safety issues."

Employees will bear most of the burden.

"It’s very difficult for us," said Vo Le, UH information technology specialist. "We have a salary cut for two years. The economy is down and never can be up because everything is cut and utilities are going up."

"I think it’s outrageous," University Lab School teacher Maria DaSilva said. "I think they can only push so far, and there’s going to be a rejection of their policy. That’s over $100 this year. It’s unbelievable. There is nowhere else to park. The neighborhoods are saturated. By raising the rates, it’s going to impact the neighborhood. It lowers our salaries once again. They’ve renegotiated all the benefits we’ve gotten. We’ve gone backwards. The cost of everything has gone up."

Hawaii Government Employees Association members suffered 5 percent pay cuts earlier this year. "We are very sensitive to that," Huebler said, and acknowledged the "sticker shock." "It’s just one of those things because there is never a good time."

If the repairs should be delayed, they could end up costing more and placing a bigger burden on future generations of employees and students, she said.

The big jump in the first year for employees will help pay for needed repairs, including badly needed waterproofing on the fifth floor of the lower campus parking structure near the Stan Sheriff Center. With water starting to seep through, it is causing the concrete to deteriorate, Huebler said.

"We cut wherever we could," Huebler said, including reducing the number of Rainbow Shuttle Service routes, citation officers and traffic control personnel during special events. The shuttle service is free to users and includes shuttling faculty to faculty housing near Longs Drug Store on Woodlawn Drive.

Proposals to raise parking fines are also expected to generate revenue. Parking without a permit will go to $40 from $15. Repeat or flagrant violation of parking regulations would jump to $100 from $25.

The $4-to-$5 daily rate will rise to $5 to $6 a day in January and is not subject to the Board of Regents’ approval. Event-goers will begin paying that price in January as well.

Huebler said the hearings on the proposals requires the governor’s signature, and once he signs off, a 30-day notice will be issued for the hearings.