Therin of Andor said:
Same actor, yes. Former cadet Nick Locarno was going to be the Tom Paris "Maquis traitor/prisoner" character in VOY, but it was thought that, due to his guilt, Nick Locarno was beyond redemption. The VOY producers really liked the actor, though, so the less-guilty, more experienced former Starfleet officer, Tom Paris, was created.
Had Locarno been used as a regular in VOY, Ronald D. Moore & Naren Shankar, writers of "The First Duty", would also have been owed a royalty for every episode in which he appeared. (Or maybe not, since they were both TNG staff writers.)
This was the same reason the proposed subcommander T'Pau became T'Pol for ENT. (Later, T'Pau only guested for three episodes, and a royalty would have gone to the "Amok Time" TOS writer's estate.)