MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) – Beau LaFave sat with us to reflect on his time as a State Representative. When asked about some accomplishments he was proud of, here is what he had to say.

“In the Upper Peninsula we’ve not grown or shrunk in population in over a hundred years,” said LaFave. “It’s been steady at 300,000. It’s not because our hospitals are better at keeping us alive longer, it’s because of population leaving, younger kids graduating from high school, going off to college, and then not coming home, or graduating high school and getting a job outside and then coming back to retire. One of the things that was necessary, in my opinion, was to show our younger folks that we have really well paying jobs here at home. And it was one of the first bills I got signed under, Governor Synder 6 years ago, was to allow high schoolers to get internships at local businesses for credit, for pay if the job was willing, and cut 20 pages of red tape keeping them in the classroom and outside of work experience. And so I think that was a significant reform.”

Since his term is coming to an end, he shared his hopes for what the next representative will work towards. He said that he hopes they focus on the housing shortage by working on lowering property taxes. He also hopes they continue working towards lowering auto insurance rates.

He was asked what he wanted to say to the people he served as State Representative.

“Thank you very much to the people of Delta, Dickinson, and Menominee counties who took a long shot on a 23 year old and sent him down to Lansing for 6 years as your State Representative,” said LaFave. “It’s been an honor and a privilege of a lifetime to wake up everyday thinking about the 90,000 people that I represent, 300,000 people that I basically represent and the people of the state of Michigan and trying to make your lives just a little bit easier with the government off your back. It’s been an incredible 6 years, I’m going to miss it terribly. But, you took a chance on somebody that, that maybe I wouldn’t have even done. Being a voter and seeing it’s a hard thing to imagine that you did that.”

When asked what his next plans were, he said he will continue working through the remainder of this term. He is still deciding on what comes next.

If you’d like to know more about Beau LaFave, or just keep up with his next plans, you can find his Facebook page here.