If you applied for your business license at the start of 2023, it would have taken 8 weeks to get the application approved.

Now? It takes only 3 days.

Many elected officials in Harrisburg tout permit reform as one of the biggest accomplishments of the 2023-24 legislative session.

There are over 2,400 permits, licenses, and certifications in the state of Pennsylvania. These range from someone needing an occupational license—like a doctor or barber—to construction projects checking their impact on the air, water, and land around them.

In January of 2023, Pennsylvania was notoriously slow at processing permits. The State Department (which handles over 1,000 application pools) and Environmental Protection Department (which handles over 700 application pools) did not have the staff to keep up with permit/license/certificate requests. There were also still many applications that had to be filed by paper.

These issues, combined with processes that were unnecessarily complicated and not easily accessible to those needing the paperwork, lead to long response times.

It took 15 days to get a cosmetology license, 13 days to get a real estate salesperson license, 43 days to apply for your M.D., and 12 weeks to get a teaching certificate.

One business, when they looked to expand operations, realized in the same amount of time it would take to get all their permits for the project… they could complete the project start to finish in another state with faster permitting systems.

"When businesses experience long delays in permitting approvals, they lose time and money. So projects stall, and then once project stalls, jobs are delayed,” Amy Brinton said, government affairs director with the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce. "Opportunities are lost. And a lot of times they're lost to other states with faster permit systems."

Both Governor Josh Shapiro and lawmakers worked to speed up the state’s response time.

During 2023, Shapiro signed executive orders that required departments to catalog and simplify their processes.

Almost two years since those orders… the Department of State reports it takes one day to get a cosmetology license, one day to get a real estate salesperson license, two days to get your M.D., and two weeks to get a teacher certificate.

The Department of Environmental Protection cleared 76% of its permit backlog (going from 2,400 applications to 600 applications in the backlog). In 2024, the Department reviewed and decided on over 40,000 applications. A pilot program launched last May has more permitting staff spread across the state for easier connection to applicants.

Most recently, in November, Shapiro signed a “fast track” executive order that helps complex economic development projects manage and track their permit progress. 

“Time is money, and people want to be able to keep more money in their pockets. One of the best ways to do that is for government to be more efficient,” Shapiro said when asked about the topic in recent weeks.

Legislatively, Senate Republicans negotiated most of their Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development act (SPEED for short) into the budget bills in July, 2024. The law focuses explicitly on the land, air, water permits issued by the Dep. of Environmental Protection for most construction projects in the state.

The law requires the department to offer applicants a way to track their application, reimburse the applicant for costs if the application is not reviewed and decided by deadline, and allows private sector experts to apply to be qualified professional reviews.

“When a permit comes in, they can be reviewed by a bigger pool of qualified professional reviewers to streamline that process."