Voters rate corporate tax cuts a very low priority in the federal budget, despite signs the Coalition government is favouring that option over personal income tax cuts.

According to a new poll just 3% of voters rate corporate tax cuts as their highest priority for the May budget, well behind fixing the deficit (46%), spending on education (27%) and personal income tax cuts (25%).

The Omnipoll of 1,147 voters was conducted for Sky News between 17 and 21 March.

The poll comes after strong indications the government is favouring corporate tax cuts, including cabinet secretary Arthur Sinodinos saying on Sunday it would benefit workers as well as the economy and the treasurer, Scott Morrison, telling parliament last week that reducing the 30% company tax cut was the best way to drive economic growth.

This prompted a backlash from the South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, who warned Malcolm Turnbull he will face a “fierce campaign” from the states during the looming federal election if he offers tax cuts to companies and does not reverse Abbott government funding cuts to hospitals and schools.

On Wednesday, Morrison said the government had limited options to stimulate growth given budget constraints so it had to “focus on those areas that most drive economic growth”.

On Thursday opposition leader Bill Shorten said the Labor party would “always pick people first” by prioritising health and education spending and pensions over “giving large corporations a tax cut”.

“Turnbull and the Liberals will always pick the big end of town, with corporate tax reductions,” he said.

“They must be truly out of touch if they think that Australians want to see cuts to company taxes ahead of making sure that people can get into a hospital, an emergency ward without waiting for hours or that they want to make sure their child with special needs get a teacher’s aide or they want to make sure that part-funded retirees and pensioners shouldn’t get their pensions cut.”

On Tuesday the Greens ruled out supporting cuts to corporate tax in the budget. Greens treasury spokesperson Adam Bandt called on Labor to unequivocally rule out supporting tax cuts for big business.

“Tax cuts for big business are unfair, unpopular and unaffordable. Labor must join the Greens and unequivocally commit to opposing any attempts by the Liberals to give big business a company tax cut in the upcoming budget,” he said.

Liberal senator Zed Seselja said it could be politically challenging to sell a corporate tax cut but the government’s modelling shows it would lead to greater productivity and jobs.

The poll also found 62% of voters say that Turnbull has not lived up to their expectations as prime minister, compared with 38% who said he had. However, the majority of Coalition voters, 61%, said Turnbull has met their expectations.