Cole Wist, the House assistant minority leader, thought it would be easy Thursday morning when he brought the bill to effectively extend funding for Great Outdoors Colorado to the floor for preliminary approval.

Senate Bill 66 reauthorizes a state agency that collects and disperses money from the state lottery. The Colorado Lottery Division is expected to employ 117 people and collect $592 million in the 2025 fiscal year, when the proposed re-authorization expires. Half that money goes to Great Outdoors Colorado, called GOCO for short, which spends it to preserve public lands.

“I think we all know the significance the lottery has played, the amount of dollars that have gone to all our counties in the state and that have provided recreational opportunities for all our citizens,” Wist, a Republican from Centennial, told fellow House members. “I hope it’s one of the easiest votes you will cast his year.”

But prairie dogs and coyotes had some lawmakers howling.

The bill that passed the Senate 30-5 on Feb. 22 collected shouts of “no” from some House members on the voice vote Thursday morning. A recorded vote in the next few days could send the bill to Gov. John Hickenlooper to extend the agency for five more years. Typically, re-authorization bills for state agencies are routine.

Rep. Kimmi Lewis, R-Kim, however, led an opposition faction against the way the money gets spent, not the lottery itself.

She cited the recent purchase of Heartland Ranch, an 18,000 preserve in Bent County. GOCO put in $310,700 to buy 7,000 acres of it.

Lewis said that besides bison and pronghorn, the property – hailed as bigger than the Boulder municipal limits – teems with coyotes and prairie dogs.

“Well, I don’t know about you, ladies and gentleman, but prairie dogs and coyotes will never be in extinction,” Lewis said. “And I’ll tell you why. They are some of the toughest little species that will ever happen, and I don’t think our lottery dollars should be out there going to a preserve to save those animals.”

Lewis said lottery money is supposed to protect lands from development, “development that doesn’t happen in southeast Colorado, but we’re going to stop development.”

GOCO received $66.2 million from the lottery in the current budget year.

“You have to realize those of us that are cattle producers, those of us who are sheep producers, goat producers, we live and exist and pay out bills and our taxes off what we make off livestock,” Lewis said.

Conservation Colorado, the state’s largest environmental advocacy group, figuratively groaned at Lewis’ appraisal of saving public lands.

“We’re so excited that the legislature is poised to extend the Colorado Lottery and assure that GOCO’s critical work can continue connecting Coloradans to the outdoors and conserving open spaces,” Scott Braden, Conservation Colorado’s public lands and wilderness advocate.

“It’s too bad that Rep. Kimmi Lewis is attempting to scare people with unsubstantiated claims that GOCO is somehow hurting ranchers. We’d be happy to send her the list of bill supporters, which includes the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and an overwhelming number of rural counties. We look forward to the bill’s imminent final passage and Gov. Hickenlooper’s signature.”

Colorado voters passed the lottery in 1992. Besides GOCO, lottery money supports the state Conservation Trust Fund and Colorado Parks and Wildlife. When revenues exceed a cap in the law, the extra money goes to the Colorado Department of Education to help build school buildings and other improvements.