The Mississippi School of the Arts appears to be safe inBrookhaven for now after a bill that would move the institution toColumbus died Thursday on a legislative deadline.

The Mississippi House of Representatives adjourned early Thursdaywithout acting on House Bill 599, which would have moved MSA to thecampus of the Mississippi University for Women. The measure hadbeen the only appropriations item on the House calendar for severaldays, but House Appropriations Committee Chairman Johnny Stringerconsistently passed on opportunities to bring the bill up for avote.

HB 599 and other general bills and constitutional amendments thatdid not see action on the House floor before Thursday’s adjournmentwere considered dead at 8 p.m. Thursday.

“It will die tonight,” District 53 Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto,said Thursday afternoon. “That’s legislation at its best – whenthings you don’t like die.”

Moak said the momentum HB 599 enjoyed earlier in the legislativesession likely petered out when it was discovered that moving MSAto MUW would require substantial, costly renovations at theuniversity. An MUW inquiry into the proposal placed the cost ofaccommodating arts students on the Columbus campus at $2.8 million,an expenditure that would have only accommodated the currentstudent body and left no room for growth.

House Education Committee Chairman Cecil Brown said part of hisreasons for authoring HB 599 was to save the state money, and Gov.Haley Barbour backed the effort last year in his executive budgetrecommendations. The need for renovations likely destroyed thelegislation’s chances at success, Moak said.

“I would say once everyone was able to step back, take a look atthe real financial picture as to how much it would cost to mergethese schools together, the decision was made that it would not befeasible to move the school,” he said.

Moak stopped short of declaring the battle for MSA over and allowedonly that the school’s supporters have “cleared the first set ofhurdles” with HB 599’s death. He said there are several differentmethods by which efforts to move MSA out of Brookhaven couldresurface during the session – repeating the attempt inappropriations and revenue measures, which will not face alegislative deadline until Feb. 24; or by simply cutting fundingfor the school altogether.

Such later attempts would be short of honor, Moak alluded, and thechances of them succeeding are low.

“It can still come up later, but it would be viewed somewhat as abackdoor approach and a lesser way for certain groups to obtainthat goal, and that doesn’t sit very will with the Legislature, hesaid.

With that in mind, District 39 Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was ready tocelebrate an MSA victory Thursday afternoon.

“In the Legislature, we say a bill is either dead or dead, dead,dead,” she said. “And this one is dead, dead, dead.”

Hyde-Smith acknowledged the possibility of further MSA action thissession – even that funding to the school could be cut offcompletely – but doubted that possibility.

“The possibility exists, but that’s like saying we’re just notgoing to fund the highway patrol this year and let it go away,” shesaid.

District 92. Rep Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, agreed, saying thatMSA should remain intact throughout the year because it is alreadyfunded in the education budget and not an item of newspending.

After seeing the effort to move MSA out of Brookhaven fall flat twoconsecutive years, Currie hopes 2010 will mark the last time theattempt is undertaken.

“I hope this puts moving the school of the arts to bed for the lasttime,” she said. “We sure have to spend a lot of time and effort onthis every year, and if they finally found out it was not going tosave any money, I hope this was the last go-around.”

MSA Director Suzanne Hirsch said she is now free to return toconcentrating on worrying about the school’s day-to-day activities,studying the coming budget cuts and ensuring arts programs retaintheir quality.

“I’m very relieved that we have another year to showcase what theschool is doing, and I certainly welcome anyone with a vestedinterest to come visit us,” she said.

MSA Foundation Chairman Bill Sones said inviting the state’sdecision-makers to visit the school and personally take stock wouldbe his next focus.

“We need to make that our focus, and it needs to begin now,” hesaid. “We had great support from the legislators who’ve been downhere to look at the school, and our own legislators all did a greatjob advocating our position to their peers. It was another unifiedeffort by Southwest Mississippi to protect our resources.”