A Fine or a Tax

We in the liberal east have cold and snowy winters.  Our states and cities in the liberal east are running out of taxpayer money to pay the public employees and pay their pensions and insurance costs promised by long gone (some not so long gone) politician.  Not everyone sees the cost of permitting jobs, few that there are, skyrocketing.  And in today's world not many care.
A utility does not want to see their paying customers unhappy.  The politician, on the other hand, needs to fund the underfunded and get re-elected.

Herald:

Attorney General Martha Coakley is slapping National Grid with a $16 million fine in connection with the utility’s bungled response to last year’s storms, her office has announced.
The record-level penalty is for “violations committed in the company’s response to the October 2011 snowstorm and Tropical Storm Irene.