There’s nobody in state government who isn’t in favor of permitting reform.

Gov. Josh Shapiro is all in favor – as evidenced by his recent public push and executive action. Republicans and businesses love the idea of permitting reform, too.

So why does permitting reform move at the snail’s pace of, frankly, Pennsylvania permitting?

Elizabeth Stelle, a policy analyst for the Commonwealth Foundation, said the foundation’s findings estimate that changes like eliminating a dozen occupational licenses and broader reciprocity with other states could increase Pennsylvania’s GDP by $9.2 billion and create roughly 184,000 jobs. Such ideas were proposed by former Gov. Tom Wolf and never came to fruition.

Shapiro’s administration has promised to “get things done” in Pennsylvania with cutting red tape a priority, including permit fast-tracking to keep major economic development projects from pulling out of the state. He’s also levied fines against agencies that miss permitting deadlines for occupational licenses that apply to roughly 1 million workers in the state. Online tracking is easier, too.

It’s not enough.

Stelle recently said Shapiro’s permitting fast track program is too small to have a major effect since the state has more than 2,400 permits. There are 62 permits that have deadlines longer than a year, and the PAyback permit rebate program Shapiro established has only had three individuals receive a refund for late permits. And, while Democrats and Republicans like the idea of permit reform, there is still no agreement just how to do that and maintain necessary legal oversight.

Permitting reform may not seem like it affects Warren County.

It does. Two major projects that would have provided regional economies a boost fell apart last year in part due to permitting issues. Sluggish construction led Houston-based Nacero to pull out of a plan to build a $6 billion gas plant in Newport Township while the state’s tax credit package wasn’t enough to convince Coca Cola to build a FairLife milk processing plant in Pennsylvania, in part because of concerns about the amount of time it would have taken to get the plant up and running.

It went to New York instead – a state with a worse reputation for being business unfriendly than Pennsylvania. That should speak volumes.

Everyone sees the problem. Real leadership will mean squeezing legislative concessions from House Democrats and Senate Republicans. That’s not happening quickly – kind of like getting a permit in Pennsylvania.