Acting Secretary of State Al Schmidt and his team said a new licensing system expected to be up and running by the end of 2024 will help make the process of issuing professional licenses smoother and will be more user friendly and transparent.
Pa.'s Acting Secretary of State Al Schmidt at his first budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee fielded questions on a variety of topics including the state's participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which has become a hot topic around the country. March 27, 2023 Screenshot from Pa. Senate websiteSpeeding up the processing time for getting a professional license in Pennsylvania is clearly on the minds of state senators.
Those along with a number of election-related topics were the focus of the two-and-a-half hour hearing. Here are some of the highlights.The new Pennsylvania Licensing System, or PALS as it is called, is expected to be up and running late next year. The $20 million system replacesDepartment officials said the new system will provide more transparency and be more user friendly than the existing one.
While it’s true the department depends on application fees to help cover its operating costs, Schmidt said meeting those deadlines is more about holding the department accountable. “Do you believe … that the efficiency is hindered from them being at home?” said Sen. Rosemary Brown, R-Monroe County. “If it was improving, I don’t think there would be as much of a concern about the remote work.”
He acknowledged it is challenging to manage employees working remotely but offering that option is necessary to compete for workers in a department that has dozens of vacancies. Instead of having 100 clerks work eight-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, it would allow for the process to be stretched out to have them working in “a more reasonable environment, both for them and for the observers on behalf of the [political] parties and behalf of the campaigns campaigns to sort of observe the process.”
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