Quake Unleashes Barrage of Legislation : Recovery: County, Congress seek to help victims clear debris, withdraw IRA funds without penalty and save money on taxes. Other steps target response in future emergencies.

Now that the Southland has survived the earthquake, its attendant gas fires, blackouts and bad water, here comes the predictable landslide--of legislation that is.

The County Board of Supervisors and Congress are weighing in with a wide variety of proposals to aid the affected, haul away the debris, cut taxes, figure out what went wrong--and right--and begin preparations for the next natural disaster.

Three weeks after the quake struck, the supervisors have half a dozen proposals on their agenda for this morning.

Supervisor Deane Dana is asking county officials to develop a “mutual aid” network for social service workers, to work like the existing network of fire and law enforcement agencies.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich has asked for a list of rules and regulations that have been ignored in the interests of rapid response. He then wants to eliminate or modify those rules “that make our county slower or less effective.”

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke is seeking to establish a program called Project: Good Neighbor, a sort of Peace Corps for county workers who could donate their “time and talents in special volunteer projects to assist disaster recovery efforts.”

Meanwhile in Washington, lawmakers have also begun to introduce bills to assist victims of the Northridge quake.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), announced at a North Hollywood news conference Monday that he was introducing legislation to allow victims of the earthquake and other natural disasters to deduct 100% of their losses when preparing their federal income taxes. “Present tax law is clearly inadequate when it comes to disasters of this magnitude,” said Berman, whose northeast San Fernando Valley district suffered widespread damage.

Current law allows taxpayers to deduct uninsured property losses only after they exceed 10% of adjusted gross income. Berman’s bill would be applicable to federally declared disaster losses occurring on or after Jan. 17, 1994--the date of the magnitude 6.7 quake.

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Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), whose Ventura County district also suffered some hardship, has introduced a bill to allow the victims of natural disasters to withdraw funds from their individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to pay for repairs without facing the usual penalty for such withdrawals.

Gallegly’s measure would waive the withdrawal penalties for any region designated a federal disaster area in the wake of an earthquake, flood, hurricane or other natural calamity. It would cover withdrawals in Southern California made after Jan. 17.