Metro

Bloomberg ‘assumes’ Cuomo would veto legislation to undo oversized soda ban

The governor’s got my back.

Mayor Bloomberg said today that he’d look to Gov. Cuomo to block any attempts by State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver from proceeding with legislation that would undo his oversized sugared soda ban.

“Well, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” the mayor said on his weekly WOR radio show. “I assume the governor is going to veto it.”

The mayor also delivered some sweet words to assuage Silver.

“I haven’t talked to Shelly yet so I don’t know how much of that [his comments] is made up,” said Bloomberg. “Shelly’s the kind of guy who really is trying to do what’s right. I think once he sits and looks at the issue and we get a chance to talk to him.”

Bloomberg compared his war against giant sugary beverages with his successful campaign to limit smoking — describing both as bad habits that exploit the poor and less-educated.

“The sad thing is all this stuff is targeted to poor people who understand less about nutrition and that sort of thing,” he said.

But after several minutes of vigorously defending his proposal, the mayor adopted a fallback position.

“It can help the health of the public. If it doesn’t, at least it’s a shot across the bow to all of us [that] we’ve got to do something [about obesity],” he concluded.