As used in this act:

    (a) The term “state officer” means only a person occupying one of the following offices established by the constitution: governor; lieutenant governor; secretary of state; state treasurer; attorney general; auditor general; superintendent of public instruction; member of the state board of education; regent of the university of Michigan; trustee of Michigan State University; governor of Wayne State University; member of a board of control of one of the other institutions of higher education named in section 4 of article 8 of the constitution or established by law as therein provided; president of each of the foregoing universities and institutions of higher learning; member of the state board for public community and junior colleges; member of the supreme court; member of the court of appeals; member of the state highway commission; director of the state highway commission; member of the liquor control commission; member of the board of state canvassers; member of the commission on legislative apportionment; member of the civil service commission; state personnel director; or member of the civil rights commission; together with his principal deputy who by law under specified circumstances, may exercise independently some or all of the sovereign powers of his principal whenever the deputy is actually exercising such powers.

    (b) “Political subdivision” includes all public bodies corporate within but not including the state, including all agencies thereof or any non-incorporated body within the state of whatever nature, including all agencies thereof.