THE MAIN REASON OUR Legislature passed a budget that endangers education and public safety (and would have gutted Medicaid, had the Congress not bailed us out at the last minute) was because of an unalterable determination to avoid raising taxes.

Despite the damage being done to some critical programs, though, anti-government legislators are complaining that the budget is filled with "hidden taxes."

They're right.

Their main complaints are about surcharges on misdemeanor traffic tickets, drug convictions and most DUI convictions. Those and a smattering of other fee increases -- from charging prisoners for prescriptions to charging more for hunting and fishing licenses -- were directly authorized in the budget.

But the true "hidden taxes" are the ones that aren't mentioned. They're the ones that the Legislature merely winked at. The ones that others will get blamed for increasing. Some will be felt immediately; some will filter down over time. Some are obvious, some not:

- Tuition and fees are going up at state colleges -- 19 percent at Clemson, 11 percent at The Citadel, 15 percent at USC, and the list goes on. The Legislature used to limit the amount tuition could be raised each year to inflation; as it has slashed college funding, it has acknowledged that it can no longer do that.

- Public schools, their state appropriations down from this year, are tacking on additional fees to make ends meet. Lexington 1, for instance, will charge $200 for drivers' education and increase fees for gifted and talented programs, sports and student parking. In Lexington 2, the price of school lunches will go up, and students will have to pay for insurance to play sports.

- The formerly free Governor's School for the Arts is charging students up to $3,000 a year for meal costs.

- The Highway Patrol likely will start charging when it provides extra traffic detail for "special events."

- Property taxes are rising to make up for the state cuts in public school funding, because the law won't allow funding to decrease from year to year. They're rising because cuts to the Highway Patrol and the Corrections Department force cities and counties to pick up the slack. They're rising to fund countless other state-local programs that get less on the "state" side.

- Local governments are raising fees as well, to help cover the extra work. Richland County, for example, increased fees for ambulance patients, people who live in mobile homes, car owners, business owners and builders.

This doesn't even begin to count all the indirect costs: the higher auto insurance rates we're all going to pay as the accident rate goes up as a result of fewer troopers on the highways; the higher auto repair bills we're all going to pay because of repeated travel over poorly maintained roads; the higher health insurance rates we're all going to pay as hospitals are forced to provide free care for mentally ill patients the state Mental Health Department doesn't have the money to treat; the incalculable premium we pay in lost jobs when tourism goes down because Parks, Recreation and Tourism can't afford to promote the state enough -- or when industries decide not to move to a state that doesn't take education seriously.

They might as well be tax increases, since we have no choice but to pay them. And they are the direct results of decisions made by our "no-taxes" legislators.