§ 135. Separate specifications for contract work for the state. Except as otherwise provided in section two hundred twenty-two of the labor law, every officer, board, department, commission or commissions, charged with the duty of preparing specifications or awarding or entering into contracts for the erection, construction or alteration of buildings, for the state, when the entire cost of such work shall exceed three million dollars in the counties of the Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens, and Richmond; one million five hundred thousand dollars in the counties of Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester; and five hundred thousand dollars in all other counties within the state, must have prepared separate specifications for each of the following three subdivisions of the work to be performed:

1. Plumbing and gas fitting.

2. Steam heating, hot water heating, ventilating and air conditioning apparatus.

3. Electric wiring and standard illuminating fixtures.

Such specifications must be so drawn as to permit separate and independent bidding upon each of the above three subdivisions of work. All contracts hereafter awarded by the state or a department, board, commissioner or officer thereof, for the erection, construction or alteration of buildings, or any part thereof, shall award the three subdivisions of the above specified work separately to responsible and reliable persons, firms or corporations engaged in these classes of work. A contract for one or more buildings in any project shall be awarded to the lowest responsible bidder for all the buildings included in the specifications.

Each bidder on a public work contract, where the preparation of separate specifications is not required, shall submit with its bid a separate sealed list that names each subcontractor that the bidder will use to perform work on the contract, and the agreed-upon amount to be paid to each, for: (a) plumbing and gas fitting, (b) steam heating, hot water heating, ventilating and air conditioning apparatus and (c) electric wiring and standard illuminating fixtures. After the low bid is announced, the sealed list of subcontractors submitted with such low bid shall be opened and the names of such subcontractors shall be announced, and thereafter any change of subcontractor or agreed-upon amount to be paid to each shall require the approval of the public owner, upon a showing presented to the public owner of legitimate construction need for such change, which shall be open to public inspection. Legitimate construction need shall include, but not be limited to, a change in project specifications, a change in construction material costs, a change to subcontractor status as determined pursuant to paragraph (e) of subdivision two of section two hundred twenty-two of the labor law, or the subcontractor has become otherwise unwilling, unable or unavailable to perform the subcontract. The sealed lists of subcontractors submitted by all other bidders shall be returned to them unopened after the contract award.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent the authorities in charge of any state building, from performing any such branches of work by or through their regular employees, or in the case of public institutions, by the inmates thereof.