by Benjamin Yount
Wisconsin’s professional licensing department is blaming a lack of employees as well as a lack of money for the months-long delay in getting people their paperwork to go back to work.
The legislature’s Study Committee on Occupational Licensing held a daylong meeting Tuesday where lawmakers pressed Department of Safety and Professional Services leaders, the latter who essentially blamed lawmakers.
Michael Jahr with the Badger Institute said the issue is not just how many people are taking calls at DSPS, but how many people in Wisconsin are required to get a license just to do their job.
“The backlog and staffing issues at DSPS are symptoms of a larger problem: Wisconsin requires far too many workers to get state permission slips to do their jobs,” Jahr told The Center Square. “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of licensed professions over the years, and the state now requires 1 million Wisconsinites to secure some form of certification before they can work.”
DSPS Secretary-designee Dan Hereth said DSPS is granting new licenses in 45 days, compared to the old wait time of 76 days. He also said Wisconsin’s waiting period is shorter than that of Illinois and Michigan.
“In each of the past two budget cycles we requested adding permanent staff to add in license processing,” Hereth told lawmakers. “While none of us can speculate with certainty about what things would look like had that support and those initiatives been approved. I think we can certainly agree that it would have helped.”
Hereth admitted that’s just for new licenses. Many of the witnesses who testified at Tuesday’s hearing say they’ve been waiting months to renew their licenses.
DSPS’s legislative liaison blamed those license holders for that delay.
“To some degree, persons who have violated laws also need to accept personal responsibility and understand the consequence is going to be a longer license process given current law and staff resources,” liaison Mike Tierney said. “If you made the choice to steal, drive drunk, use illegal drugs, batter someone, or violate a law the fact is that your classmates are going to get their credential before you.”
DSPS said it is having trouble finding and keeping employees, even while paying as much as $18 hourly for part-time work that allows people to work from home about half the time.
Lawmakers had little sympathy for DSPS’s excuses.
“Over the course of the entire term the previous secretary was in office, there were literally no communications in the past two years between the [DSPS] secretary, the governor, and/or his chief of staff on these issues,” Rep. Shae Sortwell, R-Two Rivers, told DSPS. “None.”
Sortwell said lawmakers are willing to help alleviate the backlog, but said DSPS need to do more as well.
Michael Jahr with the Badger Institute said the issue is not just how many people are taking calls at DSPS, but how many people in Wisconsin are required to get a license just to do their job.
“The backlog and staffing issues at DSPS are symptoms of a larger problem: Wisconsin requires far too many workers to get state permission slips to do their jobs,” Jahr told The Center Square. “There has been a dramatic increase in the number of licensed professions over the years, and the state now requires 1 million Wisconsinites to secure some form of certification before they can work.”
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Benjamin Yount is a contributor to The Center Square.
