Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, The American School at Hartford for the Deaf, The Connecticut Institute for the Blind, any other institution or agency that receives at least sixty per cent of its funding from the state or federal government, or both, and, by contract, any independent institution of higher education, as defined in subsection (a) of section 10a-173, may each purchase through the Commissioner of Administrative Services such supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services as such institutions require at the cost thereof to the state.