When state lawmakers levied user fees on people who break the law or use court services they had Lanard Vanderhorst in mind.

Beginning this month, South Carolina's courts began collecting new fees to offset two years of Legislative cuts to the state's budget.

Vanderhorst got hit recently with two of them in General Sessions Court.

He was sentenced to six months in jail, suspended to one year probation for possessing more than an ounce of marijuana at his West Ashley home in March.

ALAN HAWES/STAFF Amber Littman (left) pays a court fine for her boyfriend as account technician Ella M. Godfrey hands her a receipt at the Charleston County Courthouse Friday.

If it were not for the new fees, Vanderhorst's first drug offense would have cost him $103. But the new fees took an additional $125 out of his pocket.

He was charged a $25 surcharge for a misdemeanor violation and a $100 fee for a drug offense.

"It is a small price to pay," Vanderhorst said of the fees, following a hearing during which he nervously watched other drug offenders receive prison sentences.

The increased court fees, which are expected to raise $26 million, are nearly half of the $49.7 million the state hopes to collect through court and non-court related fees that took effect July 1.

The money raised through court fees will finance nearly 30 state agencies that provide services that include a Lowcountry juvenile detention center, legal defense for indigent defendants and the state courts.

Instead of raising taxes, additional court costs are being passed to people who break the law or who use court services, said Rep. Robert Harrell Jr., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

"It is critical in the times that we face now that we make sure law enforcement has what it needs," said Harrell, a Charleston Republican. "As the budget gets tight, it makes sense that the folks who are using the (court) system pay for it."

The new fees are in addition to an existing 107.5 percent assessment that is added to every court fine. The assessment doubles a fine.

Although court costs have been increased, research shows that South Carolina's court fees remain comparable to other states, Harrell said.

All states are being forced to raise court fees because of a decline in the national economy, said Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal. "My hope is that we won't have to do it again next year," she said.

Of all the fees, the $25 surcharge is expected to raise the largest amount, $24.5 million, for the courts and nine other agencies. But not all of Charleston County courts are collecting the surcharge.

If Vanderhorst's drug charge were simple possession of marijuana, he would have been prosecuted in Charleston Municipal Court, where the $25 surcharge has not been added to traffic and non-traffic offenses, said Sylvia Skeeter, the city's court administrator.

Skeeter said the South Carolina Court Administration has not sent her official notice of the $25 surcharge or the other fees. Without the instructions, she does not know how to collect them.

Charleston County magistrates, however, are collecting most fees, but the $25 surcharge will be assessed later, said Magistrate David Coker.

Magistrates are not adding the surcharge to traffic tickets written before July 1, Coker said.

Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville Republican, opposed the $25 surcharge, saying it is unfair to add fees for a minor infraction. Some police officers might be reluctant to write a citation knowing the driver will be assessed an additional $25, if convicted, Thomas said.

The Department of Juvenile Justice is expected to receive $5.4 million from revenues generated by the $25 fee to help it comply with a federal court order to ease crowding in juvenile prisons.

The surcharge will finance the Coastal Evaluation Center in Ridgeville for one year, said Bill Byars, director of the Department of Juvenile Justice.

The state court system will get the smallest share of the surcharge, $918,188. Last year, the courts raised other fees to offset budget cuts, Toal said.

The state now also charges $500 to defendants who are found guilty and placed on probation if they use a court-appointed attorney. The Commission on Indigent Defense will get the money. No estimate has been made on how much that fee might raise.

"We are conscious that our clients are indigent, but we need (the money) to be funded," said Jennifer Kneece Shealy, Charleston County's chief public defender. If a defendant can't pay the fee, it will not put them in violation of their probation.

But the new rules are not clear on who will get the money if it comes down to a defendant not having money to pay the $500 fee and make restitution to a victim, said Tyre Lee, the commission's executive director. "That is a hard question, if there is (a victim) who has suffered a physical injury or property loss," Lee said.