Lexington County Council Councilman Bill Banning and Ned Tolar will face each other in a runoff on June 24th.  The outcome of the June 10th primary was a fight between those in support of the tax and those who fought hard against it in the weeks leading up to the primary. Ned Tolar a anti-tax advocate who came in second place on Tuesday in a three candidate race to the incumbent Banning. Tolar said of the proposed tax increase “The message we put our just appealed to more people, If taxes are necessary , we need to do it but, in this case, they’re not necessary.”

The third place finisher Billy Oswald endorsed Tolar after his defeat. Banner said about Tolar “he better put on his running shoes” saying that he would not be out worked by Tolar and his campaign. Banning has held his seat as county councilman for 16 years. The runoff will be in District 8 which stretches from West Columbia through the Oak Grove area to the east side of Lexington and through part of the south shore of Lake Murray.

For more on this story see The State Paper