The Simple Way to Scrape an HTML Table: Google Docs
From the post:
Raw data is the best data, but a lot of public data can still only be found in tables rather than as directly machine-readable files. One example is the FDIC’s List of Failed Banks. Here is a simple trick to scrape such data from a website: Use Google Docs.
OK, not a great trick but if you are in a hurry it may be a useful one.
Of course, I get the excuse from local governments that their staff can’t export data in useful formats (I get images of budget documents in PDF files, how useful is that?).