Gene Boyce
 This week’s NC Notable is a government gadfly and a taxpayers’ champion.
Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce has successfully sued the state and won. Three of those cases – the state’s collection of retiree’s taxes, taxes on stock gains and the disbursement of benefits to disabled civil servants – netted $1.3 billion.
Boyce was born in 1932 in Clinton, NC and raised in Raleigh. He earned undergraduate degrees in history and math, as well as a law degree from Wake Forest University. Boyce was an Army courts-martial lawyer at Fort Bragg from 1957 to 1960.
In 1973, he served as counsel to Sen. Sam J. Ervin and led the investigative team that uncovered the famous Nixon White House tapes.
Boyce’s lawsuits centered on a belief that citizens were unfairly taxed. He spent 10 years, often working with little or no pay, defending that belief. He left mega law firm Womble Carlyle in September 1996 to start a law practice with his children.
Since then he defied the state’s taxing and spending authority. He challenged whether the state could increase taxes in 2001 on the state’s upper income earners and whether Gov. Mike Easley could seize $335 million in taxes due to cities and towns to offset the budget shortfall.
For his belief that you can fight city hall and win, Gene Boyce is this week’s NC Notable.
Previous NC Notables
12.15.2005 Doris Betts
12.08.2005 Molly Corbett Broad
12.01.2005 John Hope Franklin
11.24.2005 Richard Petty
11.17.2005 Annabelle Lundy Fetterman
11.10.2005 James Baxter Hunt
11.03.2005 Maya Angelou
10.27.2005 Mike Krzyzewski
10.20.2005 Jim Broyhill
10.13.2005 Reynolds Price
10.06.2005 Kay Yow
09.29.2005 Van Eure
09.22.2005 Mary Semans
09.15.2005 John Dornan
09.08.2005 Eva Clayton
09.01.2005 Lois Britt
08.25.2005 Fred Barber
08.18.2005 Julius Chambers
08.11.2005 Martha Guy
08.04.2005 Nido Qubein
07.28.2005 Jeanette Hyde
07.21.2005 Billy Graham
07.14.2005 Lee Smith
07.07.2005 Ralph Ketner
06.30.2005 Thomas Hearn
06.23.2005 John Allison
06.16.2005 Jim Martin
06.02.2005 Darleen Johns
05.26.2005 Hugh Morton
05.19.2005 Bernie Mann
05.12.2005 Orrin H. Pilkey
05.05.2005 William Friday
04.28.2005 Annie Louise Wilkerson
04.21.2005 Martin Lancaster
04.14.2005 Shirley Caesar
04.07.2005 Carl Fox
03.31.2005 Bob Jordan
03.24.2005 Ann T. Denlinger
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