NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Some 20 New York business, labor and political leaders were asked on Monday by Governor Andrew Cuomo to help solve the state's fiscal problems in the wake of the Congressional super committee's apparent failure.
Cuomo invited the leaders to take part in a Monday conference call, a Cuomo aide said, in a move that suggested the Democrat is trying to build a diverse, bi-partisan coalition to support budget cuts that could prove necessary.
The call follows Cuomo's warnings last week that New York's current $133 billion budget had sprung a $350 million hole while next year's accord has a $3.25 billion gap.
The governor said some steps the super committee might have enacted, if successful, could have a "catastrophic" impact on New York, by cutting programs such as Medicaid and abolishing deductions for state and local taxes.
After months of talks, the high profile congressional effort to rein in ballooning U.S. debt was expected to end in failure due to disputes over taxes and spending cuts.
The New York financial experts invited to take part in Monday's call include American Express Chairman Kenneth Chenault, Ken Langone, co-founder of Home Depot, and Felix Rohatyn, a special adviser to the chief executive of Lazard, who helped lead New York City out of its 1970s debt crisis.
Others on the call have expertise in exchanges, asset management and hedge funds such as Glenn Dubin, co-founder of Highbridge Capital Management, James Chanos, founder of Kynikos Associates, and Frank Zarb, former chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange.
Cuomo also invited Pat Barrett, ex-Republican state party chairman and former chief executive officer of Avis.
Labor representatives include Denis Hughes, president of the AFL-CIO and Alexis Herman, former U.S. Secretary of Labor.
The governor's invitation extended to some representatives of poor and minority groups such as Rossana Rosado, chief executive officer of the newspaper El Diario and Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.
Representing the upstate area is Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, a Democrat who is close to Cuomo.
To represent New York City, Cuomo chose Peter Solomon, a former vice chairman of Lehman Brothers and a deputy mayor of Economic Policy and Development under former Mayor Edward Koch.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a political independent, has no representatives on the call.
(Reporting by Joan Gralla; Editing by Andrew Hay)
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