After all, as they like to say in the Legislature when someone questions their motives: "It's for the kids."

I wrote in February about House Bill 356, sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Lockhart, R-Provo, that sought to change the way chewing tobacco is taxed from the current 35 percent on the product's wholesale cost to a levy based on the weight of the can of tobacco. That would make the tax 90 cents per can.

Lockhart said the bill was to protect children because it would raise the cost of the cheapest tobaccos.

But it would lower the cost of the most expensive and popular tobaccos - Skoal and Copenhagen, which command about 80 percent of the market.

That's why the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Coalition for Tobacco Free Utah and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids all opposed the bill.

But the bill was being lobbied by Gary Thorup, a well-plugged-in lobbyist who represents the company that makes Skoal and Copenhagen.

Lockhart at the time told me she did have concerns that all the health organizations were opposing the bill so she likely would make some changes in the legislation. The bill had already passed the House and was in the Senate Rules Committee.

Instead of being changed, however, the bill remained buried under the radar screen in the Senate Rules Committee, where it was lifted to the Senate floor by Lockhart's buddy Sen. Curtis Bramble on the last night of the session and quickly passed.

For the kids.

Meanwhile: Lockhart and Bramble teamed up last year on a strange piece of legislation to order the State Department of Human Services to issue a request for proposals from private vendors to operate the Utah State Hospital in Provo.

The bill would have the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee review the bids, rather than the State Purchasing Division, and decide if the state should go ahead and privatize the mental hospital.

That was after Lockhart and Bramble and several other legislators were treated to a junket in Florida, courtesy of lobbyists for Geo Care, to tour its facilities there.

Geo Care, you might have guessed, is a private company that operates prisons and state mental hospitals.

After much scrutiny, the bill didn't pass. But this year the Legislature's Master Study Resolution, sponsored by Bramble, includes among numerous issues to be studied by legislators the feasibility of privatizing the State Hospital, including issuing requests for information from interested private providers.

prolly@sltrib.com