Macon licensing office downsizes as Georgia rolls out GOALS platform

The Secretary of State says the GOALS system is reducing licensing wait times and saving millions after a major downsizing of the Macon office.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger officially unveiled the full-scale launch of the GOALS system on Thursday and celebrated a major milestone in modernizing professional licensing in Georgia.

Raffensperger says the Macon office has reduced its building platform from 83,000 square feet to 9,700 square feet, which is a significant savings in both cost and space.

The old space for the professional licensing process was too slow and outdated for locals. Raffensperger says the new office is moving from an outdated, paper-based system to a state-of-the-art GOALS licensing platform.

“And what we’re seeing right now is a reduction, tremendous reduction,” Raffensperger. “The time it takes people to get licenses — for nursing it used to be 48 days, with our new GOALS system it’s 18 days. We’ve just saved a month of time so people can get out there and start working.”

He believes this space will bring more business to Macon and guarantee more jobs.

“It’s a better space, more convenient space for our workers, but also for anyone that’s licenses holders that need to come here and access it,” Raffensperger said. “We’re at a great spot, great exit, so we think it really works. But we also just saved taxpayers 6 million dollars, and the big thing is we’ve already saved a month in licensing and renewals, for example nursing. We’re getting people renewals in minutes.”

An employee at the Macon building, Ursula Clark, says she is thrilled.

“I think it will help because once you’ve been in an old space for so long, it gets outdated,” he said. “So anything new and fresh you look forward to… I know I have myself.”

The professional licensing building is located at 3920 Arkwright Road, Suite 195.