In the mid-1970s, when the city’s finances were collapsing, Lewis Rudin convinced many developers to prepay hundreds of millions of dollars in real estate taxes. The city was saved from bankruptcy, and the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) was born.

Now, with the city and state once again on the brink, Rudin’s son, William, who succeeded his father as ABNY chairman, is looking to build a new coalition. But this time, the members are further afield than the real estate community, and their contribution is meant to be ideological rather than monetary.

The loose coalition of ABNY, the Business Council of New York State, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) and the Citizens Budget Commission (CBC) consists of a coordinated effort aimed at rehabilitating the state budget by trying to put the focus on long-standing spending problems and generally opposing tax hikes.

The group is largely in favor of Gov. David Paterson’s (D) original budget proposal.

“We have to use what resources we have to make sure people understand what the governor is saying,” Rudin said.

For the others in the coalition, the current financial crisis is the prime moment to act.

“This is our opportunity,” said Business Council president Kenneth Adams. “And if we don’t take advantage of the opportunity to solve this problem in the next 18 months, then it could take generations to fix.”

The principals, who include Rudin, Adams, REBNY president Steve Spinola and CBC president Carol Kellerman, began meeting in mid-December, plotting how to promote what they call a “rational” approach to the budget built on the overarching tenet that the state not use federal stimulus money to simply plug budget gaps. They argue this would be nothing more than a band-aid on a systemic spending problem, especially with Wall Street mired in a long-term decline.

More specifically, they all support the pension reform plans put forward by Paterson and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Ind.).

Each member is charged with bringing something to the fight. The CBC shares intelligence it collects about the budget with the others before their studies become public. ABNY has a powerful, broad and bipartisan membership in New York City. The Business Council peddles influence statewide. REBNY has a well-positioned lobbying arm in Albany.

But they still may be no match for powerful public sector unions that can unblinkingly spend $1 million per week to bash the governor’s proposed reductions in health care spending. On the financial front, coalition members admit they simply cannot compete.

“We’re not going to win the overall public relations battle. We’re not spending that kind of money,” said Spinola.

The idea instead is to collectively serve as a counterweight, writing op-eds, appearing jointly on television and meeting together with lawmakers.

The coalition’s opponents reject their argument as unimpressive.

“I’m not surprised to see that the state’s most powerful interest groups would be out making the same tired old argument and wanting to contribute nothing during an economic downturn,” said Working Families Party spokesperson Dan Levitan.

There are barriers, however, that make working collectively difficult. Getting in the same room is a task: The group was originally supposed to meet every two weeks, but that now happens only once a month and usually over conference call.

The four principals have not yet met all at once with a single lawmaker. They have appeared only once together on television, in December, on New York 1. They have published one op-ed together on pension reform, which appeared in the Albany Times Union on Feb. 1. More are planned, but the schedule and outlets are not set.

Kellerman says at this point she essentially considers the alliance a “working group” that exists primarily to share information over e-mail and conference calls, so that individual members can speak from similar talking points while conducting business separately.

“It’s not a formal group in any way,” said Kellerman. “It doesn’t really have a structure.”

Sometimes, the groups cannot speak as one simply because their memberships work cross-purposes. For instance, Kellerman has chosen not to include her name in an upcoming Daily News editorial in opposition to the “millionaire’s tax,” because the CBC is less strongly opposed to the tax than the other groups.

Likewise, the CBC wants to rid the state of Empire Zones, but many members of the Business Council benefit from the tax breaks those bring. And Kellerman does not think an increased sales tax on consumer items like soda is such a bad idea, while the others oppose all tax increases.

There have been other disconnects as well: though everyone in the coalition counts reforming the state’s health industry as a key aspect of cutting state spending, that is not one of the coalition’s major talking points. (Notably, 1199 and the Greater New York Hospitals Association are both members of ABNY.)

And while the coalition’s broad goal is clear, the specific solutions they are promoting for this year’s budget session remain somewhat vague. Still, Rudin noted that the group has at least had some success in getting their big idea across to another diverse set: the New York Post, Daily News and New York Times have all endorsed their notion of reducing the state’s long-term spending.

But Adams is confident that he and his colleagues are getting their message across, with the situation growing increasingly worse.

“People could say we needed to cut spending before, but now it’s an economic reality,” Adams said. “All I can say is, tune in. Stay tuned.”

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ABOVE (left to right): Carol Kellerman, Steve Spinola, William Rudin and Ken Adams