By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

LBANY, Sept. 4 — The unilateral way Gov. George E. Pataki assembled a commission to study how the state should meet a court order to provide a sound, basic education to children in New York City has angered some key political players, chief among them Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

As a result, the commission appears to have been crippled politically before it could even begin its work, some lawmakers and legislative staffers said. The Democrats who rule the Assembly have denounced it as a cynical delaying tactic by the governor to put off until after next year's budget the issue of how to get more money to New York City schools.

Governor Pataki had hoped that the panel would help him find a compromise on the difficult question of school financing, an issue that has vexed him throughout his political career. But by failing to consult Mr. Bloomberg beforehand and by not appointing a representative of the mayor to the commission, the governor ended up alienating the Bloomberg administration, which had strongly supported efforts to force the state to provide more aid for city schools.

The mayor called the commission a cruel hoax, questioned the need for "another blue ribbon panel" and said elected leaders in Albany should just resolve the inequities in school financing in the next budget. "We have a city problem, and that problem is only going to be solved by the State Legislature, the Senate and the Assembly, by the governor and by the mayor," he said.

Aides to the Republican governor profess themselves perplexed by the chilly response from the Democrats and the mayor. They deny that the panel is anything but a well-intentioned effort to respond to the Court of Appeals ruling, though they acknowledge that they did not seek the help of the mayor or legislative leaders in putting it together. They also maintain that the Legislature will have plenty of time to act on the commission's recommendations, expected to be published on March 1, before a state budget is passed in April or May.

At the heart of the furor over the commission is a cold political reality: the court has ordered the state, in essence, to spend whatever it takes to improve New York City's schools at a time when both the city and the state are short of cash and are facing huge deficits. The Legislature and governor would be dealing with this problem in an election year when all members of the Assembly and Senate run for re-election.

The prevailing wisdom is that the court cannot be satisfied without spending more money. The Assembly Democrats would like to see the governor address the court order in his executive budget in January, so he will have to shoulder some of the blame for whatever cuts or tax increases are necessary. The Senate's Republican majority can be expected to try to protect the suburban and rural districts they represent in whatever deal is struck. The mayor wants the state, rather than the city taxpayers, to foot the bill.

"This thing is going to be highly charged and combustible regardless of what the governor did," said Randi Weingarten, the president of the city's teachers union, United Federation of Teachers, and one of Mr. Pataki's appointees to the commission.

The commission's findings could give Mr. Pataki political cover for decisions that could prove unpopular with some parts of the electorate. Senior Pataki aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the governor also hoped to seize the court ruling as an opportunity to revamp the entire system of education financing, rather than to simply provide more money to New York City schools.

"He wants a long-term, comprehensive solution, and not to just throw more money at this problem," one aide said.

Whatever the governor's intentions, the eclectic makeup of the commission, and the way he unveiled it on Wednesday, giving other political leaders short notice, raised eyebrows among city Democrats and at City Hall.

Among the 16 commissioners named so far are two members of the Pataki administration, a former president of the defunct and discredited New York City Board of Education, a former New York City schools chancellor, an environmentalist, a pediatrician, a Catholic bishop from Buffalo, the chancellor of Syracuse University, a school superintendent from a Long Island district and the mayor of Albany.

The panel lacks any parents, school board members, city educators, Bloomberg administration officials, state education officials or members of the state Board of Regents. Mr. Silver called the commission "a hodgepodge of political associates of the governor."

"The fact is, there isn't a person on it that's currently involved with the education system of New York State, period," he said. "I don't know what he was thinking when he put together this group."

"I can only theorize that he doesn't want to have to deal with it in his next budget submission, and the best way to not deal with it is to say someone is studying it," Mr. Silver went on. "What he's trying to do is not be the one who says, `Here's the funding we have to provide, and these are the cuts we have to make in other parts of the budget.' "

Mr. Pataki's aides said the criticism over the composition of the board was misplaced, because the governor had purposely left nine seats open to fill after he gauged the public reaction to the commission. They also deny the governor is trying to avoid the issue in next year's budget. To the contrary, he hopes the commission will help build a consensus, they said.

For his part, Senator Joseph L. Bruno, the Republican majority leader, stayed out of the dispute today, saying only that he would not "second-guess" the governor. Still, he declined an invitation to put someone on the commission and made it clear that he would not automatically support whatever the panel recommended.

The tepid response of legislative leaders and the mayor does not bode well for the fight looming in the Legislature over school aid, which is likely to divide lawmakers along both regional and party lines.