Taxes via Proxy

A friend of mine recently posted on her FB account that she was frustrated with how much of her property taxes went to fund public education. Having no children she thought this was unfair which I completely agree with as I have no children myself. But, her post really got me thinking about all the taxes we pay. Especially those we pay via proxy.
Taxes via proxy, you ask. Yes, you do indeed have them. Simply review your water bill, electric bill, or gas bill. If you notice, you pay an education tax (and several others) in one form or another on all of these bills. Is this a mistake? Is it simply evil private businesses trying to increase their profits? No. This is what I like to refer to as 'taxes via proxy'.
Understand, this is nothing new. This has been going on as long as I have paid these bills. But I ask you, should this practice be allowed? Was there a law passed or legislation signed that allows this type of activity to go on? Or is it simply the government strong-arming private businesses to collect taxes that the government cannot (or more likely, does not) want to collect because they have already overburdened taxpayers directly and have to find ways to increase revenue (remember of course that they produce nothing and therefore their only income comes from taxpayers). My guess is it's not the former but rather the latter.
This seems to be to be the ultimate insult to both the taxpayer as well as the businesses. Are the businesses being subsidized to handle this additional workload? It's possible but highly unlikely. Are taxpayers really aware of this practice? Probably not, since most of us don't do a line item check of our bills. But that's what they're counting on. And even if you do check it's usually a seemingly small amount. Usually less than a dollar. But, if there are say 250,000 people in the county who pay .50 cents a month for 12 months, that equates to 1,500,000 dollars a year! Which to me is hardly chump change.
I could be wrong but absent the government, if one group of people forced another group of people to do this, I believe it would be called racketeering and would be punishable by federal charges and prison time. But since it's the government, it's simply business as usual and I'm sure no charges will be filed.