Question

why did the british government pass new colonial laws, which created new taxes that the colonists had to pay?

Answer 1

The expense of the conflict with France. Since the Brits had just spend serious money defending the American colonies (in the French and Indian War), they thought it not unreasonable that the colonists should pony up a few more shillings to help defray military expenses, particularly so that the people at home in England wouldn't have to shoulder the whole burden.

From their point of view, the colonists objected partly just because they were used to their low-tax state, but also because they had limited representation in Parlaiment for saying how any tax money raised should be used. Granted, they certainly would approve of using it to defend American colonies against the French, but they would probably not want much of it to go to defending England itself, or for that matter in the general conflict with France in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean.