(WHTM) – The governor’s handling of those allegations has been criticized by some, but there have been notable successes and Shapiro was touting them at a Harrisburg Mall Thursday.

One of the first things Josh Shapiro did as governor, and he was widely applauded for it, was promise to streamline the processes for getting permits and licenses.

On Thursday he was outside a local salon with a progress report and it’s a good one, he says.

Bureaucratic backlogs have been greatly reduced or eliminated.

When he took office it took 27 days for a dentist to get a license. Shapiro says that is now down to four.

Wait times for unemployment compensation calls were over an hour.

He says that’s now down to 17 minutes which is still not good enough for the governor, but a lot better.

Shapiro said, “We’re making progress thanks to the hard-working Commonwealth employees who are dedicated to this effort. They’re the ones on the front lines. They’re out there identifying areas where we can speed up the process and improve.”

Luke Bernstein, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry said, “While permitting and licensing reform do not sound exciting, it doesn’t sound like the sizzle to us. This is really, really important stuff and I’ll tell you what, this is not only the sizzle, this is the steak. This is vitally important to making Pennsylvania more competitive.”

The education secretary said his department has greatly reduced the wait times for teaching certificates, from a few months to now two to three weeks which is crucial while we’re in the midst of a major teacher shortage.