Watch out soda-lovers, you might soon be paying almost $0.70 more for a two-liter bottle of bubbly, if Mayor Bloomberg has his way. He's telling the state legislature that a penny-per-ounce tax on soda could help the city avoid drastic cuts to hospitals and schools.

Of course, when is the last time any work actually got done in Albany? Exactly. Our calculations indicate that we can expect the soda tax to go into effect shortly after hell freezes over.

"In these tough economic times, easy fixes to our problems are hard to come by," he said. "But the soda tax is a fix that just makes sense. It would save lives. It would cut rising health care costs. And it would keep thousands of teachers and nurses where they belong: in the classrooms and clinics."

The city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, and his predecessor, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, have advocated such a move, but the comments reinforce the mayor's newly public support of the controversial tax.

Last year, after Gov. David A. Paterson encountered such strong opposition that he eventually dropped the proposal, Mr. Bloomberg expressed support for it but noted the "enormous outcry" and said the idea was "just not one that we're going to be pursuing."