State lawmakers on Tuesday rejected state bar leaders’ plea for a $125 increase in lawyer-licensing fees, criticizing the trustees’ decision to give agency employees significant pay raises in 2023 without securing funding for them first.

Members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, vetting the annual licensing fee bill for the first time this session, also questioned the bar’s decision to pay $4.4 million a year to lease back office space in the San Francisco building it sold late last year.