ALBANY -- Gov. Eliot Spitzer has appointed academics, former government leaders, and a Wall Street financier to propose ways to cap local property taxes.

The commission headed by Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi will include Stony Brook University President Shirley Strum Kenny; former Secretary of State Basil Paterson; former Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro; Michael Solomon of Merrill Lynch & Co.; state Regent Meryl Tisch; and former Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz.

Spitzer says the group named Wednesday is diverse enough to take on capping some of the nation's highest property taxes.

A cap -- which is subject to approval by the Legislature -- wouldn't take effect until 2009 at the earliest.