Maney Overhauls Florida’s Mental Health Law – Brings Home Bacon for Niceville, Okaloosa

Representative Patt Maney kept busy during the 2024 state legislative session in Tallahassee.

State Representative Patt Maney, the representative in the Florida House for Niceville, Valparaiso and Eglin Air Force Base – returned home from Tallahassee after a two month stretch with roughly two hundred other lawmakers.

He returns triumphant—his four-year-long effort to pass his signature Mental Health Bill has finally paid off: both the Florida House and Senate approved the measure unanimously. The bill now needs the governor’s signature, or at least his decision not to veto, to become law.

The Niceville Chamber of Commerce awarded Maney their ‘You Rock’ award for his efforts at this year’s legislative session. Maney told the three hundred or so members of the chamber and their guests about other efforts he’d succeed on this year. Including:

secured $20.8 million in state funding for various projects around Okaloosa County, including $3 million to help install reclaimed water lines from the western part of the city to Deer Moss Creek and other parts in the eastern portion of town. “The budget had $300,000 for Niceville, and we got it up to $3 million,” Maney said.
Maney also touted his efforts to bring a civil engineering undergraduate program to the Fort Walton Beach Campus of the University of West Florida. “That’s pretty good for Niceville,” Maney added, “For those who are defense contractors and in that business, for the second year in a row, I’ve gotten over $1 million.”
Back on the mental health side of things – Maney told the crowd he and the rest of the northwest Florida delegation secured $325,000 for the mental health diversion program in Fort Walton Beach. They also got additional funding of the homeless-focused One Hopeful Place complex as well as the Bridgeway program.
Finally, the representative told his constitutents he worked to reduce the costs of transferring a car to another person when the owner dies as well as costs associated with paying ad valoreum taxes in installments.

Next Year

As of this moment, no one has filed to run against Representative Maney in a primary or general election.

The 2025 legislative session will begin on March 11, as it is an odd-numbered year.

More About Representative Patt Maney

Florida State Representative for Florida’s Fourth District, Patt Maney, has served in the US Army as an attorney and on the bench as a judge in Okaloosa County.

Maney was first elected to office in 2020 and has served without opposition since his election.

Maney was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2005 and spent more than 20 months at Walter Reed Hospital to recover from his combat injuries. He would receive the Purple Heart and achieve the rank of Brigadier General before ending his career. Maney retired from the bench in 2018.

The Representative serves as the Vice Chair on the Commerce Committee and the Children, Families and Seniors Subcommittee.

The American Conservative Union rated Maney a 94%

Other Votes of Interest

Maney made the following votes in the 2024 session:

✅ Means Maney voted for the bill

❌ Means Maney voted against the bill

HB 1291 | Prohibits College Courses about Identity Politics | ✅ | Made Law
HB 1 | Prohibits Minors Under 16 From Having Social Media Accounts | ✅ | Vetoed by Governor DeSantis
HB 3 | Requires Age Verification Restrictions on Pornographic Websites | ✅ | With the Senate
HB 201 | Authorizes Emergency Refills of Insulin and Related Supplies A Number of Times Per Year | ✅ | Made Law
HB 187 | Defines Antisemitism | ✅ | Made Law