Gwinnett County would partially shift from property taxes to sales taxes if a proposal by Lorraine Green, candidate for chairman of the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, becomes reality.

On Monday, Green unveiled her plan for eliminating the property taxes Gwinnett's homeowners pay for county operations. She wants to replace them with a 1 percent Homestead Option Sales Tax, or HOST.

Green's proposal would not affect the property taxes Gwinnett homeowners pay for schools or to the state. Her projections of how much HOST would generate are based on Gwinnett's existing penny sales tax, SPLOST — the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax — which pays for parks, roads and capital improvements.

The HOST penny sales tax would be in addition to the county's existing SPLOST, Green said, but would be permanent.

The Georgia Legislature would have to grant permission for the county to put the question to voters. Also, Georgia law requires that if Gwinnett's voters approve the tax, the county must collect it for a year to confirm how much would be generated.

The approximately $157 million that Green estimates would be raised from a HOST also would be enough to roll back the stormwater fee, reduce commercial property taxes and get at the county's most nagging problem: traffic. Because the first year's proceeds must go to capital improvements, Green said, she believes that $157 million could create a new "Gwinnett-controlled rail transit system" that would be separate from, but connect to, MARTA.

Estimates are that as much as 40 percent of the money raised by a sales tax is paid by people who don't live in the county, Green said. She said her plan also would finally put the "underground economy, a.k.a. illegal immigrants" on the hook to start paying something toward the county's massive infrastructure.

"In today's world, it seems like the honest, hardworking families are the last ones to get a break," Green said.

Green said someone who owns a $250,000 home and paid about $1,000 in property taxes for county government costs would instead pay about $200 annually in additional sales tax, netting him or her a savings of $800.

A news release from incumbent commission Chairman Charles Bannister issued Monday said Green "once again blatantly stole an issue that Chairman Charles Bannister has been working on for over 2 months."

"Not only is Lorraine Green trying to hijack Chairman Bannister's plan, but she has also flip-flopped on the issue of taxes," the release said. It cited her earlier comments that "tax cuts were not an option."

Bannister said he'd been campaigning on the idea of a tax cut "since Day 1," but Green took issue with the idea at a previous candidate forum, saying the county would have to raise taxes or cut services.

Buford electrical contractor Glenn Pirkle, who's also running for chairman, said he isn't opposed to the idea — but in his mind, it doesn't go far enough.

"It would be a great idea if she'd go one step further and go with a 3 cent sales tax to eliminate all land taxes, including school and state taxes," Pirkle said. "The way she's proposing it, as soon as she removes the county tax part of it, the school will raise the millage rate, and we still won't get a savings."

HOSTs have been approved by DeKalb and Rockdale counties. Four cities in DeKalb County have taken the county to court over how the revenue from HOST should be divided.