(Reuters) - California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday warned influential investor group Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association to "cease making threats to the local officials of San Bernardino County" over a plan to use eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages from private investors.

"Communities have been ravaged by the housing crisis and the financial sector has had long enough to fix the problem they helped create," Newsom said in a statement first released to Reuters. "We cannot let another day go by while families are forced from their homes. We must think big and help our local governments develop solutions - because the industry and federal government have not."

"This may be an aggressive idea, but communities such as San Bernardino, Chicago and others have no choice in these desperate times," Newsom continued.

(Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Bernard Orr)