Premier Stephen McNeil warned this spring's budget was going to hurt and new polls suggests his government is taking a hit as a result.

The latest poll by Corporate Research Associates has satisfaction in his government down to 50 per cent of those polled. That's a 10 point drop since the last survey period in February. It's also the lowest satisfaction numbers since the Liberals took power in the fall of 2013.

McNeil's personal popularity is also on the decline. Although he's still the top choice among the three main party leaders, only 35 per cent of those asked chose him as their preferred choice for premier. That's down nine per cent from February.

He still has more than half of his mandate left for people to forget about whatever happened this part quarter. - Don Mills

Acting NDP leader Maureen MacDonald finished second with 20 per cent support.

PC leader Jamie Baillie finished third with 18 per cent support.

Don Mills, the CEO of the polling firm, said it's no surprise that the Liberals would see their popularity drop at this point in their mandate.

"The Liberals have spent some political capital in the last quarter and there's probably a couple of things that have contributed to it. Certainly one of them is likely the fiasco of the film credit," he said.

NDP surge in polls

The NDP made the biggest gains in this poll when it comes to voter intentions.

In the last quarter, those who picked the NDP as the party they would vote for if there had been an election jumped from 18 per cent to 27 per cent.

The Liberals are down eight per cent over the same period, while the PCs are the choice of 19 per cent of those polled.

Despite the poorer showing by the Liberals, Mills doesn't think the premier should panic.

"He still has a commanding lead in voter intention," he said. "He still has more than half of his mandate left for people to forget about whatever happened this part quarter."

Eight hundred and one Nova Scotians were contacted by telephone between May 7 and June 1.

A survey this size is accurate plus or minus 3.5 per cent 19 times out of 20.