Sandy Parker, president and chief executive of the Rochester Business Alliance, has been named one of five special advisors to the New York State Commission on Property Tax created last week by Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Parker will be representing the Unshackle Upstate, a 66-member coalition of businesses and other organizations, encompassing more than 32,000 employers and more than 1 million workers.

"I am honored to be asked to serve in an advisory capacity, as this commission will be doing work that is essential to revitalizing our economy," Parker said. "New Yorkers pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, and Unshackle Upstate long ago identified high taxes as a significant impediment to much-needed job creation and economic growth, as well as a major reason why businesses and people are leaving our region."

The commission will be chaired by Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi, as it has six additional full members and five special advisors. The members are: former Onondaga County Executive Nicholas J. Pirro, former State Assemblyman Paul A. Tokasz, former Secretary of State and State Senator Basil Paterson, State Regent Merryl H. Tisch, SUNY Stony Brook President Shirley Strum Kenny and Merrill Lynch & Co. Director Michael Solomon.

Serving along with Parker as special advisors are: Lisa Donner, co-director of the Center for Working Families; Elizabeth Lynam, deputy research director at the Citizen's Budget Commission: Karen Scharff, executive director of Citizen Action of New York, and Robert B. Ward,, deputy director/director fiscal studies at Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

The commission is charged under executive order to "study, examine, investigate, review and make recommendations" on the root causes of high property taxes in New York State, including expenditures by schools and local government, the effectiveness of state mechanisms to property tax relief to different classes of taxpayers and the effectiveness and proper approach to a property tax cap, among other issues.