On the day he signed an ethics overhaul bill, some local lawmakers accused Gov. Deval Patrick of grandstanding on the issue as he seeks to bolster his resume for re-election next year.

Patrick, who signed the bill Wednesday, had demanded passage of the ethics package, as well as transportation and pension reform measures, before agreeing to a 25-percent sales tax increase in the state budget that took effect Wednesday.

"I think it was a lot of gamesmanship," said state Rep. Betty Poirier, R-North Attleboro. "It was an empty kind of threat."

State Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, agreed, saying the move was done with eyes towards next November.

"The governor is politically posturing for his re-election," he said. The bill toughens state ethics standards by banning lobbyists from giving gifts to state lawmakers, banning lawmakers from accepting gifts of "substantial value" and sharply increasing the penalty for bribery from three years imprisonment and a $5,000 fine to 10 years imprisonment and a $100,000 fine.

It also strengths the state's lobbying, ethics enforcement and campaign finance laws.

State Rep. Steve D'Amico, D-Seekonk, disagreed with his colleagues, saying Patrick's veto threat was not posturing, but, given the governor's re-election aspirations, any move he makes will be given that connotation.

"I think anything he does at this point, some people are going to see it that way," he said.

He added, however, the governor's pledge was not the impetus for the reform bills. The issues were on lawmakers' minds from the very beginning.

"That was the plan from Day 1," he said. "But it never hurts to have someone holding your feet to the fire."

Poirier agreed with D'Amico, adding it was the Legislature that first mentioned making the reforms before raising taxes.

"We were the ones saying that we need to reform before we got revenue," she said. "(Patrick) adopted our mantra."

The bill was enacted after the Statehouse was rocked by the indictment of its third consecutive House speaker, Salvatore DiMasi of Boston, the arrest of Sen. Dianne Wilkerson of Boston on bribery charges, as well as the arrest of another senator, James Marzilli of Arlington, on public lewdness charges.

Lawmakers touted the ethics package at a bill-signing ceremony on the Statehouse's Grand Staircase. "My hope is that with the passage of this ethics law, we will restore the public's confidence in government," House Speaker Robert DeLeo said during the bill-signing ceremony.

Patrick said he hoped the law "raises the level of expectations inside the building to what the public is entitled to expect from us."

The bill also increases the state Ethics Commission's power to investigate and prosecute violations, creates a statewide grand jury to make it easier to investigate political corruption and requires ethics training for state and municipal workers and elected officials.

It maintains the current limits for donations to political campaigns - $200 a year for registered lobbyists and $500 for everyone else - but eliminates "special committee" arrangements between state political parties and elected officials.

That change came after it was revealed Patrick had an agreement with the state Democratic Party allowing donors to give him $500 while donating up to $5,000 to a special fund called the Seventy-First Fund. (Patrick is the state's 71st governor.)

In 2008, the fund contributed more than $288,000 in "in-kind contributions" to Patrick, picking up the tab for consulting fees and technology expenses.

The bill would still allow individual donations of up to $5,000 to state political parties.

Barrows said the bill does not solve what he sees as the major cause of recent ethical scandals - the overwhelming majority that Democrats hold in the Legislature.

"The only way we're going to see real reform is if we get some balance, if we get a real two-party system back in this state," he said.

Democrats "are pounding their chests, saying 'Look what we did,'" he said. "Show me something real, show me something I can take to the bank."

Associated Press material was used in this report.