War Between States : N.H. Won’t Tax ‘Vice’ Star, Unlike Vermont

CONCORD, N.H. —  Seeking to capitalize on actor Don Johnson’s dispute with Vermont over $50,000 in income taxes, Gov. Judd Gregg has written to the “Miami Vice” star, asking him to make tax-free movies in New Hampshire.

Johnson is fighting Vermont’s demand that he pay the tax, which is on income earned from the movie “Sweetheart’s Dance,” made in the Green Mountain State in 1987.

In a letter sent Monday to Johnson, Gregg invited the actor to consider New Hampshire as a location for future film projects.

“We regret the impasse you have reached with our sister state,” Gregg wrote. “Still, a good Yankee never passes up an opportunity, so I want to point out to you that New Hampshire has no state income tax and no sales tax.”

He said Johnson would be able to keep any money he made on movies made in the state.

“In New Hampshire we don’t penalize success, we encourage it,” Gregg wrote.

A spokesman for the agency that represents Johnson said he was not aware of any productions by the actor scheduled for New England.

Gregg also offered to provide Johnson with more information on New Hampshire if he needed it, inviting him to call collect.

A collect call may be the only help the state could provide if Johnson decided to make a movie in New Hampshire.

The state has a film bureau in its Office of Vacation Travel, but its budget is $1 a year. The appropriation maintains the office’s legal existence but nothing more.

The last major movie made in New Hampshire was “On Golden Pond,” starring Katharine Hepburn, Jane Fonda and the late Henry Fonda. It was filmed in 1980 on Squam Lake.