(1) "Agency of local government" means any municipality, county, home rule county, or home rule city or any agency, department, division, board, bureau, commission, institution, or other authority thereof which is a budgetary unit exercising construction contracting authority or discretion and which is located in a county of thirty thousand persons or more, or a city or town of thirty thousand persons or more, according to the state demographer.

(2) "Construction contract" or "contract" means any agreement to construct, alter, improve, repair, or demolish any state-funded public project of any kind.

(3) "Cost" means the total cost of labor, materials, provisions, supplies, equipment rentals, equipment purchases, insurance, supervision, engineering, and clerical and accounting services; the reasonable value of the use of equipment, including its replacement value, owned by the agency; and the reasonable estimates of other administrative or indirect costs not otherwise directly attributable to the state-funded public project which may be reasonably apportioned to such project in accordance with generally accepted cost-accounting principles and standards. To determine the reasonable value of the use of equipment owned by the agency, the agency may utilize rates established in the department of transportation's published equipment rate schedule in force at the time of the estimate or rates established in any other similar, generally accepted, published equipment rate schedule. To determine administrative and indirect costs, the agency may utilize a good faith percentage estimate of not less than fifteen percent of the total direct costs.

(4) "Defined maintenance project" means any project that involves a significant reconstruction, alteration, or improvement of any existing road, highway, bridge, structure, facility, or other public improvement, including but not limited to repairing or seal coating of roads or highways or major internal or external reconstruction or alteration of existing structures. "Defined maintenance project" does not include routine maintenance activities such as snow removal, minor surface repair of roads or highways, cleaning of ditches, regrading of unsurfaced roads, repainting, replacement of floor coverings, or minor reconstruction or alteration of existing structures.

(5) "State-funded public project" means any construction, alteration, repair, demolition, or improvement by any agency of local government of any land, structure, facility, road, highway, bridge, or other public improvement suitable for and intended for use in the promotion of the public health, welfare, or safety and any defined maintenance project, which are funded in whole or in part from the highway users tax fund and which may be reasonably expected to exceed one hundred fifty thousand dollars in the aggregate for any fiscal year.