OK, policy junkies, there’s a cool new data source online: The “Commonwealth Data Point” maintained by the state Auditor of Public Accounts. This website collects a number of interesting data series and makes them available from a single Web page.

State and local revenues… state and local expenditures… the state budget… population… food stamps… income… workforce… schools… and more. All presented in a common format, covering fiscal years 2003, 2004 and 2005. The goal is to accumulate 10 years worth of data. I’m not sure what the logic was for selecting the particular data series that appear on the page, but are all are potentially useful for anyone studying policy issues in Virginia.

Thanks to Sen. Walter Stosch, R-Henrico, who sponsored the legislation making the data publicly available. Huzzah! Three cheers for transparency in public data!