MOVIES - May 5, 1989

Actor Don Johnson (of “Miami Vice”) is facing a Vermont income tax bill of more than $50,000. The state Senate’s Finance Committee this week killed a provision of a new tax law that would exempt entertainers from state income tax, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1986. The committee initially approved the exemption, but 24 hours and dozens of telephone calls from angry constituents later, the panel reversed itself. The state billed Johnson for money he earned in Vermont while making the 1987 film “Sweetheart’s Dance.” In a lengthy statement issued Thursday by his press agent, Johnson said he regretted that the issue had been “personalized” to focus on him rather than the policy implications of the tax.