Malachi bought a new fishing rod. the regular price of the fishing rod was $125.99 he bought it on sale with a 15% discount sales tax of 3% is applied to the discounted total. which was the price with tax malachi's fishing rod to the nearest cent

The regular price of the fishing rod is $125.99.
There is a 15% discount from that price.
The discount is equal to 15% of $125.99 which is equal to .15 * $125.99 which is equal to $18.8985.
Discount is like a markdown, so subtract $18.8985 from the price of the item before the change to get $125.99 - $18.8985 = $107.0915. 

This is the price of the item before tax is applied.
Now you apply the sales tax of 3%.
3% of $107.0915 is equal to .03 * $107.0915 which is equal to $3.2127.
Tax is like a markup, so add $3.2127 to the price of the item before tax was applied to get a selling price of $107.0915 + $3.2127 which is equal to $110.3042. 

Round this off to 2 decimal places to get a final selling price of $110.30.