Residents and businesses will soon pay more for their new trash pickup service.

Starting on April 1, bills for garbage, recycling and compost pickup in San Mateo will rise 23.3 percent. The San Mateo City Council will finalize the increase at its meeting Monday night, barring an improbable last-minute deluge of residents protesting the rate hike.

The typical home with a 32-gallon trash container will see its quarterly garbage bill jump from $39.27 to $48.42. That’s an extra $3.05 each month. Residents with trash cans of other sizes and all businesses will see their rates increase proportionately.

But unlike virtually all other nearby cities, San Mateo’s city government subsidizes its trash service. This year, the city will spend $2.3 million to avoid even larger rate increases by using a combination of special revenues, such as the building permit deposits that developers forfeit.

So San Mateo will still have the lowest garbage fees of any of the 12 cities between Burlingame and East Palo Alto that switched to the Recology trash-pickup provider in January, said Roxanne Murray, the city’s recycling programs manager.

Neighboring Foster City will charge $5 more per quarter for the same service, even after the rate increase in San Mateo, officials said. On the extreme end, Redwood City and Belmont charge their residents about $75 each quarter.

Nearly all 12 cities have adopted their biggest rate hikes in memory this year as part of the switchover from Allied Waste to Recology.

San Mateo and other cities owe Allied millions of dollars for old bills and must pay Recology extra for its enhanced service, namely weekly recycling and compost pickup.

“Our rates are right on par, if not the most affordable,” Murray said. “We’re just trying to cover the cost of the services. We really are conscious of our ratepayers.”

San Mateo’s bill from Recology this year is $19.3 million, and the current fees would only generate $17.1 million, Murray said.

It also owes Allied $3.55 million, which the city will pay back through 2012.

Murray said she hopes there will be a minimal increase in the rates, if any, next year.

As of early last week, nearly 150 residents had filed written protests against the rate hike, which was announced in January.

By state law, a majority of residents need to protest a rate increase to kill it.

Contact Mike Rosenberg at 650-348-4324.