Speaker of the House Jase Bolger was first elected as a State Representative in November 2008. He is in his second term as a State Representative and his first as Speaker.

A former county commissioner, Bolger has always approached leadership decisions from the perspectives of husband, father and small-businessman. Bolger founded and operates a company that offers telephone- and computer-based support to Fortune 100 companies throughout the country. He is married to his high school sweetheart and they have two teenage children.

Bolger graduated from Western Michigan University with a bachelor of Business Administration with a dual major in Finance and Political Science. An Eagle Scout, Bolger holds community service high on his list of priorities.

This legislative session began with Michigan facing a $1.8 billion deficit, and workers struggling with unemployment of nearly 13 percent.

Bolger's first year as Michigan's Speaker of the House was groundbreaking not just because of the number of issues dealt with but because of the number of issues the legislature solved that had been unresolved for decades. By the end of his first year as Speaker, the legislature had already accomplished 90 percent of the two-year plan Bolger had laid out for the House.

Bolger's principles are based on the idea that elected officials must always remember the money they are spending belongs to the families the officials represent in their districts and, therefore, must be spent wisely. He also believes leaders must lead by example and seek to do what is best not just for the next year but the for the next generation and generations beyond.

Among the legislature's accomplishments during his first year as Speaker, Bolger counts work on the state budget as one of the crowning achievements.

Under Bolger's leadership, the state crafted a structurally sound budget, paid down long-term debt and put money away in the state's savings account. All of that was completed four months before it was due – the earliest in at least 30 years – and without raising taxes.

The Michigan Legislature also improved opportunities for students to get a better education by reforming teacher tenure, lifting the cap on charter schools and creating a statewide anti-bullying policy.

This year Michigan revamped its tax structure by scrapping the burdensome and complicated Michigan Business Tax and replacing it with a simple and competitive 6-percent Corporate Income Tax. The legislature moved the state away from a tax code riddled with special deals for select industries and individuals to a system the governor accurately describes as simple, fair and efficient.

Government spending and operations were greatly improved when the Legislature reformed binding arbitration for police officers and firefighters, placed limits on taxpayer spending for public employee benefits and established a true four-year limit on welfare benefits to help break a generational cycle of dependency.

As he often prescribes, Bolger led by example by taking a pay cut, reducing legislative benefits and ending out-of-whack legislative retiree healthcare.

One year after being placed at the helm of the house by his caucus, Michigan's budget is now in surplus, the state has more than $500 million in its savings accounts, and the debt burden on taxpayers has been reduced by $5.6 billion. Michigan's unemployment rate has fallen by more than 2.5 percent to a current rate of 9.8 percent.

Despite all of his first-year accomplishments, Bolger has no plans to rest, noting, "Our families are counting on us. They demand and they deserve results. We must keep working, and I firmly believe we will not let them down."