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SANTA FE — A law regulating the conduct of government officials and employees will be tightened under a measure signed by Gov. Bill Richardson.

The changes, effective in July, include new restrictions on contracting and other business dealings between state officials - or their families - and state agencies.

The new law also requires for the first time that state officials and employees report to their supervisors or to the secretary of state any nonstate employment they may have.

The bill signed Friday was one of the few pieces of the ethics package sought by Richardson that cleared the Legislature during the recent 60-day legislative session and a follow-up special session. The reforms were proposed in the wake of a kickback scandal involving two former state treasurers.

"It's an important step forward, but it's not enough," said the governor.

He signed an order Friday to revive an ethics task force chaired by former Gov. Garrey Carruthers and Suellyn Scarnecchia, dean of the University of New Mexico Law School. The 20-member panel will review what lawmakers have passed, recommend more changes and advise by Oct. 31 whether there should be a special legislative session on the issue.

The governor has said he wants campaign contribution limits and an independent ethics commission.

The updated Governmental Conduct Act - which still does not cover legislators - curbs business transactions between state agencies and the people who work for those agencies or their families.

It bars public officials from coercing workers into contributing to political parties or campaigns, and from retaliating against them on the job because of political differences.

Friday was the deadline to act on the bills passed during the 60-day session that ended March 17.

Among other legislation the governor has signed are bills that:

• Provide $12 million to the five-year-old Faculty Endowment Fund for the state's colleges and universities - money they must match dollar for dollar, and 5 percent of which must be spent on the governor's film, energy, aerospace or education initiatives.

• Create a Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department, consolidating programs now in the Department of Public Safety and the governor's office.

• Increase the salaries of Metropolitan Court judges to 95 percent of a district court judge's salary, up from the current 90 percent.