Evers Warns Budget Must Fund More Staff to Handle Professional Licenses
DSPS Secretary says licenses will be delayed for workers in many occupations.
Connor Tarter (CC-BY-SA)
Gov. Tony Evers’ administration is warning that Wisconsinites could face much longer wait times for professional licenses unless lawmakers approve part of the governor’s budget request.
Wisconsin’s Department of Safety and Professional Services, or DSPS, manages more than 200 types of credentials needed for jobs ranging from plumbing to nursing.
But, with temporary positions on track to expire later this year, the department is set to lose close to 30 contract employees who process license applications and handle customer service questions. The budget submitted by Evers earlier this year would replace those positions with 24 permanent full-time employees, tasked with handling applications and staffing a call center.
If those permanent positions aren’t approved to replace the expiring, contracted positions, DSPS Secretary Dan Hereth warned that many Wisconsinites would be forced to wait longer for the credentials needed to start new jobs.
“If we don’t approve the positions in the budget, much of that progress that leads directly to increased wages for Wisconsin residents goes away,” said Hereth, who was appointed by Evers as DSPS secretary in August 2022. “We go back to hour-long hold times. We double, or even in some cases triple, the amount of time it takes to get a license in Wisconsin.”
Hereth’s message comes as Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled Legislature crafts the state’s next two-year budget, set to take effect July 1.
Under Evers’ latest budget plan, DSPS would be staffed by close to 288 full-time-equivalent employees. He’s asking the Legislature to approve $164 million in funding for the department over two fiscal years.
Almost all of the department’s funding comes from program revenue, which comes from the fees charged for credentials, exams, inspections and building plan reviews.
“It’s worth highlighting that we’re actually not investing tax dollars in this process,” Hereth said. “What we’re asking to utilize is the fee dollars that our license holders already paid to the department. We want to put their fees to work for them.”
The governor’s two-year request includes $2 million for adding permanent call center staff and nearly $1.8 million for adding permanent license review staff.
Hereth argues using permanent employees instead of contractors is a better investment, in part, because of the time it takes to continually hire new people for time-limited positions.
“Our contractors are actually, in many cases, more expensive than our full-time staff and they have … far less breadth of experience when it comes to answering some of the really unique and complex questions [about] the over 240 different types of licenses that we issue,” Hereth said.
Republican state legislative leaders did not respond Friday to questions from WPR.
Earlier this month, lawmakers on Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Joint Finance Committee voted to slash hundreds of items from the governor’s spending plan. That includes at least five new positions requested for DSPS, including a data-collection specialist and an officer tasked with crafting administrative rules.
But, so far, Evers’ request to add two dozen permanent licensing and communications staff within DSPS has been preserved.
Hereth contends that those licensing-review positions are crucial to Wisconsin’s economy.
“We have a workforce shortage in Wisconsin, particularly in skilled professions,” Hereth said. “It’s really important, not just for our citizens, but for the entire economy of the state, to continue to move people into the workforce quickly.”
Republican lawmakers have long criticized Evers’ leadership over DSPS. They’ve zeroed in on long wait times for some professional licenses and blamed backlogs on poor management.
An audit released in 2023 found that Wisconsin’s turnaround times for occupational licenses had improved compared to preceding years.
In fiscal year 2022, it took a median of 49 days for DSPS to issue a health care license, the audit found.
Since then, processing times for health care licenses have sped up further.
Granting a health care license now takes a median of 38 days, while business licenses take 18 days and trade licenses take a median of five days, an online dashboard maintained by DSPS shows.
In the last budget cycle, GOP legislators agreed to increase staffing for DSPS, although those staffing levels were lower than what had been originally requested by Evers.
Lawmakers also approved millions of dollars in the current budget for technology meant to make licensing more efficient.
While those technological improvements have helped, robust staffing is also needed, Hereth said.
“While we’ve utilized technology to great effect, sometimes there’s just no replacement for a human talking to a human,” Hereth said.
As lawmakers craft budget, Evers administration pushes for staff to handle professional licenses was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
You can be sure that Republican legislators will complain about the slow processing of these professional licenses and will vote against any legislation that calls for full staffing.